LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

UIITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS, VIA NAZIONALE, ROME, ITALY. 



H 






ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS: 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE 



AMERICAN CHAPEL AT ROME, ITALY; 



TOGETHER WITH THE SERMONS PREACHED IN CONNECTION 

WITH ITS CONSECRATION, PEAST OF THE 

ANNUNCIATION, MARCH 25, 1876. 



BT THE 

Rev. R J. NEVIN, D. D., 

EEOTOR. 




NEW YOEK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

549 AND 551 BEOADWAT. 

1878. 



r 



X 






COPYRIGHT BY 

D. APPLETON & CO., 
187T. 



TO 
THE MEMORY 

OF 

RICHARD CECIL NEVIN, 

WHOSE OFFERED MINISTRY IN THE FLESH 

OUR LORD CALLED TO HIMSELF IN THE FAR BETTER ORDERS 

OF A HOLY DEATH, 

THIS WOEK IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED, 

WITH THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

OF THE 

STRENGTH GIVEN, THROUGH HIS EXAMPLE OF 

PURENESS, FAITH, AND PATIENCE. 



PREFACE. 



The wide-spread interest manifested in the work 
of building St. Paul's Church, in Rome is a suffi- 
cient reason for the publication of this volume. 
The author feels the need only of an apology for 
its late appearance, and begs to plead in excuse 
for this the exhaustion following six years of heavy 
and unbroken toil and anxiety, and the pressure of 
duties whose daily fulfillment seemed to have a first 
claim on his time and strength. 

As it is, he fears that in his hastily-prepared sketch 
much that would have been of interest will be found 
wanting, and that full justice may not have been 
done to all the friends who helped so willingly 
and perseveringly in carrying through the work of 
the Church in Rome. Writing amid the inconven- 
iences of travel, and the distractions of much work 



6 PREFACE. 

yet undone that ought to be done, and without the 
church records to refer to, it is almost inevitable 
that some points should be overpassed that he would 
have desired to bring into notice. 

He begs, in this connection, to express his warm 
thanks to his friend the Kev. F. B. Chetwood, of 
Elizabeth, ISTew Jersey, for much valued help in pre- 
paring the work for the press. 

New York, September 25, 187*7. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface ... .... 5 

Early History of the Chapel under the Papal Government 9 

First Steps toward building a Church ... 35 

The Laying of the Corner-Stone . . • 58 

Consecration of the Church within the Walls . . 81 
Feast of the Annunciation. Sermon preached at Consecra- 
tion by the Right Reverend A. N. Littlejohn, D. D., 
LL. D., Bishop of Long Island . . . .105 

The Mystery of the Gospel. By the Lord Bishop of Peter- 
borough ...... 145 

The Church Catholic. By the Right Reverend the Lord 

Bishop of Gibraltar . • • • .156 
Catholic Unity. By the Rev. Lord Plunket . . 173 
The Witness of St. Paul in Rome. By the Rev. H. C. Pot- 
ter, D. D • .192 

Prayer. By the Right Reverend William Hobart Hare, 

D. D., Bishop of Niobrara .... 206 

Associated Worship of God. By the Rev. Stopford Brooke 221 
Christ working in His Church. By the Rev. R. J. Nevin, 

D. D 238 

Appendix .....•• 25*7 



ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 



i. 



Early History of the Chapel under the Papal 
Government. 

In the spring of 1859, Bishop Alonzo Potter, of the 
Diocese of Pennsylvania, held service and celebrated 
the holy communion in the city of Rome, Italy, in a pri- 
vate house on the Piazza Trinita de' Monti. I am in- 
formed that this was the first time that Divine worship 
was held in Rome according to the liturgy of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church in America; and also that it 
was immediately taken notice of by the Papal Govern- 
ment in a " significant and warning remark " by Cardi- 
nal Antonelli to the American Minister there resident. 

In the same room of the same house, the residence at 
the time of the American sculptor, Mr. Joseph Mozier, was 
organized in the autumn of the same year the American 
congregation, which was the beginning of our Church 
work in Rome. The circumstances under which this or- 



10 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

ganization was started are as follows: The Rev. William 
Chauncey Langdon, when abroad in 1857, had been made 
to feel strongly the need of a better provision for the 
spiritual wants of our people in Europe, and had also 
been convinced that political changes were soon coming 
to pass in Italy, which would open a great opportunity 
to our Church, if worthily represented there, to exercise 
a wholesome influence in the direction of ecclesiastical 
reform. He decided, therefore, in 1859, to take steps 
which might lead to the founding of an American chapel 
in Rome, and applied to the Foreign Committee of the 
Board of Missions for help. They declining to assume 
any official relations to a work of this kind, which did 
not apparently come within their defined field of action, 
Mr. Langdon started for Rome without pledges of sup- 
port from any committee, but simply with the official 
sanction of his Diocesan Bishop, Alonzo Potter. On 
reaching Rome, he was warmly received by the Hon. 
John P. Stockton, then American Minister at the Papal 
court, and appointed by him to the charge of the ser- 
vices at the Legation, under the cover of whose flag only 
was it possible in those days for our people to worship 
God publicly in Rome. On Sunday, November 20, 1859, 
in a room fitted up as a chapel in the Legation, then oc- 
cupying the Palazzo Bernini in the Corso, our first pub- 
lic services were held. 

At this juncture there arrived in Rome the Rev. 
Isaac P. Labagh, a missionary of the American and 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. H 

Foreign Christian Union, and claimed the charge of the 
services at the Legation on behalf of that society. This 
complication seems to have led to the immediate organ- 
ization of a permanent American congregation, which 
had not been contemplated at this time. A meeting of 
Americans of various denominations was held on the 
Tuesday following, which decided upon the organiza- 
tion of an Episcopal church, and invited Mr. Langdon's 
cooperation therein. And on the Saturday following, 
at a general meeting of Americans in Rome interested 
in the matter, such an organization was formally effected 
under the title of Grace Church, Rome, and the follow- 
ing gentlemen elected vestrymen : 

Hon. John P. Stockton, Joseph Moziee, 

De. Fitz- Willi am Saegent, Ezekiel Lincoln, 

Judge Heevey A. Lyons, H. de Y. Glentwoeth, Sec'y, 

De. L. S. Buebidge, Luthee Teeey. 

In justice to all parties I give in full the resolutions 
passed at this meeting ; the more so, as the plan of re- 
ferring the settlement of the whole matter to a general 
meeting of the Americans in Rome seems to have origi- 
nated with Mr. Labagh : 

Whereas, The Rev. William Chaunc^y Langdon has come 
among us to establish a permanent Episcopal church, which 
has long been needed here ; and — 

Whereas, We believe that such a permanent church will 



12 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

alone unite the Americans in Home in one service : therefore, it 
is unanimously 

Resolved, That we extend him hereby a cordial welcome, 
and, in proportion to our respective means, we offer him our 
undivided support. 

Resolved, Also, that the thanks of the Americans in Eome 
are due to our Minister, Mr. Stockton, for extending to the 
Rev. Mr. Langdon the use of a room in his house, and the pro- 
tection of our flag. And — 

Whereas, Since the commencement of this enterprise, the 
Rev. Isaac P. Labagh, the agent of the American and Foreign 
Christian Union, has arrived here, sent out to continue the 
winter services hitherto under the direction of that body (at 
the Legation), and in view of the fact that the work already 
commenced by the Rev. Mr. Langdon is intended to be perma- 
nent, that he has come to make his home among us, and that 
the Rev. Mr. Labagh has expressed himself unable to assume 
such relations toward us; and believing, moreover, that this is 
now a self-sustaining parish, and need no longer be a mission- 
ary station : therefore — 

Resolved, That while we return our sincere thanks to the 
Rev. Mr. Labagh for his coming, and to the society for sending 
him to us, gratefully acknowledging their past services here, 
we request him to inform the society of our unanimous wish 
for the continuation of the church already inaugurated by the 
Rev. Mr. Langdon, any interference with which would, in our 
opinion, at this time be productive of much evil. 

Resolved, Also, that the thanks of this meeting are hereby 
tendered to the Rev. Mr. Labagh, for his Christian and friendly 
suggestion that the Americans in Rome should meet and decide 
for themselves these questions. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 13 

Resolved, Also, that the Kev. Mr. Labagh be requested to 
forward a copy of these resolutions to the American and For- 
eign Christian Union, and ask their prayers for our welfare. 

So Grace Church, Rome, was organized, and on the 
day following its first services as a congregation were 
held, with about sixty persons present, in the Palazzo 
Bernini, and in the week following the Legation, and the 
church with it, was removed to the Palazzo Simonetti, 
farther up the Corso, where, on the 4th of December, 
the Holy Communion was celebrated according to our 
rite for the first time publicly in Rome, twenty-three 
persons receiving thereof. The sprout of the Church 
thus planted in the midst of Papal heresy throve so 
vigorously that it was able early in January, 1860, to 
send an offertory of fifty dollars to the struggling mis- 
sion of Nashotah, in our Western land, and, at the end 
of the season, to pay its rector a salary almost equal to 
its present average. On the 2d of December the vestry 
held its first meeting, when the Rev. William Chauncfey 
Langdon was formally elected rector. On the 11th of 
February, in order to comply with the canon of the 
Church in the United States, regulating the organiza- 
tion and government of congregations in foreign parts, 
a formal resolution was passed and addressed to the then 
Presiding Bishop (the Right Rev. T. C. Brownell, D. D., 
of Connecticut), expressing the desire of the rector, 
wardens, and vestrymen, that "the parish of Grace 



14 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

Church, in the city of Rome, Italy, should be received 
under the authority of the General Convention, and be 
recognized as a part of the said Protestant Episcopal 
Church, agreeably to the provisions of said canon." 

This application — signed in evidence of full unanim- 
ity by every member of the vestry — was forwarded to 
Bishop Brownell on the same day, but it was not until 
more than a year later, in the spring of 1861, that his 
answer was received, admitting the congregation into 
formal union with the Church at home. This answer 
was the third that had been sent. In those days, the 
ways of the Roman post-office were dark and uncertain. 
Not only newspapers, but letters as well, entered Rome 
subject to a strict but often very stupid censorship. Ob- 
jectionable letters were suppressed — that is, stolen by 
government authority, and either destroyed or filed away 
for testimony against men in the hidden archives of the 
Inquisition. And any one who was under suspicion 
always got his mails late by reason of the examination 
through which they were passed. Two or three days' 
delay was nothing. Time was of no particular value in 
Rome under the rule of the popes. As for newspapers, 
one sometimes, especially in the case of the London 
Times, would receive his copy a day or two behind the 
regular time, with some obnoxious leader or correspond- 
ence neatly cut out of it. 

The records of the vestry for this year close with a 
special meeting held April 23, 1860, and no further en- 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 15 

try appears in the books till December 30, 1863 ; but I 
am informed by the Rev. Dr. Langdon that services were 
opened in the following November in the Palazzo Loz- 
zano, to which the Legation had now been moved, and 
were continued until the beginning of May, 1861 ; when, 
on account of the disorganizing influence of the war at 
home upon the American colony in Rome, and the ap- 
proaching retirement of the Hon. Mr. Stockton from 
office, Mr. Langdon returned to America, leaving Messrs. 
Luther Terry and John A. King, Jr., a committee clothed 
by the vestry with power to perpetuate the organization, 
take charge of the effects of the church, and take meas- 
ures for resuming public services whenever it should be 
practicable to do so. 

During the winter of 1861-'62 the services were thus 
suspended at Rome, while Mr. Langdon busied himself 
at home in trying to sustain and awaken interest in the 
beginning he had made. It was not until the summer 
of 1862 that the Rev. Dr. C. M. Butler arrived in Rome, 
having been appointed to the charge of resuming the 
services by the Rt. Rev. George Burgess, D. D., to whom 
a delegated oversight of the congregation at Rome had 
been given by the Presiding Bishop. Dr. Butler gath- 
ered together the fragments of the vestry — three mem- 
bers — and began services in October, in an apartment in 
Freeborn's banking-house. The United States Minister, 
then in Rome, Mr. Randall, had not yet taken an apart- 
ment, and, a few weeks later, returned to America. Un- 



16 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

til Christmas, the services were of a decidedly migratory 
character, being held part of the time at No. 11 Via 
Condotti, and part of the time on the Trinita de' Monti. 
At Christmas-time, the new Minister, Mr. R. M. Blatch- 
ford, arrived, and took an apartment in the Hotel de 
Russie, and under his protection the services were com- 
fortably and safely carried on till the summer of 1863. 
The congregations at this time are reported as often 
numbering over a hundred. 

In the autumn, however, the United States Minister 
had been again changed, and, until the arrival of the 
newly-appointed Minister, the services were held in dif- 
ferent American houses, in various parts of the city, 
rarely for more than two Sundays in the same house. 
An attempt was made to find a resting-place in a hired 
hall, with the hope that, under the cover of the arms 
of the consulate or Legation attached to it, our services 
would be permitted by the Papal Government." Dr. But- 
ler, however, was peremptorily admonished that this 
would not be allowed, but that only under the roof of 
the Legation could we enjoy this right. 

The new Minister, General Rufus King, arrived in 
December, and at a meeting of citizens of the United 
States resident and sojourning in Rome, held at his resi- 
dence, December 28, 1863, a full vestry was elected, 
by which Dr. Butler was immediately elected rector. 
General Rufus King and Joseph Mozier were elected 
wardens. Grace Church was thus revived again. A 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 17 

large room was taken by the vestry under the roof of 
the Legation — the Palazzetto Doria. Services were reg- 
ularly held there until the close of the season, with an 
attendance reported as often numbering two hundred 
persons. 

During this winter the first effort was made to sep- 
arate the congregation from its dependency upon the 
United States Ministers Resident, by securing a chapel 
of its own on a lease of several years. Of course, there 
was no hope of this being allowed within the city ; but, 
as for many years the Church of England had been 
allowed a chapel without the gates of Rome, it was sup- 
posed that equal toleration would be shown toward the 
American community. An arrangement was therefore 
made by the vestry to lease for the term of five years a 
large room outside the Porta del Popolo, situated just be- 
yond the English Chapel, and which, indeed, had in earlier 
years been used for the services of the English Chapel. 
The rent was to be five hundred dollars per annum, and 
the vestry was to have the right of relinquishing it on 
three months' notice, in case of interference at any time 
on the part of the Papal Government. The Rev. Ed- 
ward Anthon and Mr. Stewart Brown, of New York, had 
interested themselves especially in this matter. The 
greater part of the rent had been raised for the first 
year, and a committee appointed to fit up the room for 
worship during the coming season, when the Government 
saved them all further preparation by interfering before 



18 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

possession of the room had been given. The proprietor 
was forbidden to carry out the contract, and sharply re- 
buked for having made it without asking permission of 
the Government beforehand. This plan having failed, 
Dr. Butler was unwilling to continue in charge of the 
services, in a character that practically was the anoma- 
lous one of chaplain to the American Legation ; and in 
May, 1864, resigned his charge in Rome, in order to 
accept the professorship of Ecclesiastical History of- 
fered to him at that time in the Divinity School at West 
Philadelphia. 

There followed another year of suspended life, as far 
as the struggling organization of " Grace Church" was 
concerned ; but during this winter — 1864-'65 — religious 
services were maintained at the Legation by a Dutch 
Reformed clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Yan Nest, well known 
later as chaplain of the " Union " congregation at Flor- 
ence. There is no record of this on the books of the 
chapel, and Dr. Van Nest must have officiated in virtue 
of the appointment of the Minister Resident. 

On the 21st of April, 1885, however, " the Vestry of 
Grace Church," which seems to have come to life again 
under the influence of Bishop Kip, of California, held a 
special meeting at the rooms of the American Legation, 
at which Bishop Kip was, " by invitation, present." At 
this meeting it was, among other things, " resolved that 
arrangements be made to recommence the services of 
the church on or about the 1st of November next;" and 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 19 

" that the Rev. Theodore B. Lyman, D. D., is hereby- 
elected rector of the church, and that the secretary 
notify him of the appointment." 

Dr. Lyman accepted the charge, and in the following 
November the services of the church were resumed under 
him, in the apartments of the Minister in the Palazzo 
Salviati, on the Corso. Here, in a large room fitted up 
chapel- wise, and reserved exclusively for the use of the 
congregation, services were kept up without interruption 
throughout the season of 1865-'66. 

The following autumn, however, the owner of the Pa- 
lazzo Salviati refused to renew the lease of his apartments 
to the Minister unless the chapel services were discon- 
tinued, and the step was boldly taken of withdrawing 
from the roof of the Legation, and of renting a large 
apartment in the Vicolo d' Aliberti, No. 12, exclusively 
for the chapel service. Services were held there through- 
out the season of 1866-'67. There was no molestation on 
the part of the Government, which assumed to have no 
official knowledge of the fact, although its police were 
on special duty every Sunday regulating the order of 
the carriages in the narrow street. But late in the 
following spring Dr. Lyman received notice from the 
authorities that he would not be permitted to continue 
the services for another winter in the place then occu- 
pied, and that he must either return under the roof of 
the Legation, or remove outside the walls to the build- 
ing adjacent to the English Chapel, the very same one 



20 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

that Dr. Butler had been prevented from occupying only 
three years before. About the same time, a plan which 
had been maturing during the winter for the building of 
a chapel in the gardens of Serny's Hotel, in the Piazza 
di Sphagna, came to an end by reason of the suspension 
by our Government of its Legation at Rome ; and Dr. 
Lyman, anxious to place the church upon a permanent 
basis, took the lease of the building referred to without 
the Porta del Popolo, for a term of four years, on his 
own responsibility, and at once gave directions for fitting 
it up as a permanent chapel, which was admirably done 
during the summer, under the personal supervision of 
Mr. J. 0. Hooker. I append here the report of the 
committee charged with the making of all requisite 
arrangements for the continuance of the services that 
year : 

"The services of our church had been for several years 
held in the residence of the American Minister at Kome ; but 
when the season of 1866-'67 opened he was unable to offer any 
room in his apartment as during preceding years, and it became 
necessary to seek elsewhere for the proper accommodation. 
Large rooms were obtained in the Yicolo d' Aliberti, Ko. 12 ; 
but the numbers who on each Sunday were unable to procure 
seats showed that some larger and more commodious place 
must be obtained. After much examination it was decided 
that a large building to be erected in the garden of Serny's 
Hotel, Piazza di Spagna, would furnish every requirement of 
size, easy access, and unobtrusiveness. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 21 

"The Papal' Government had toward the end of the season 
declared that no Protestant religious services could be allowed 
within the walls of the city except those held in the residence 
of an embassador or minister, and had in consequence closed 
the two Scotch churches which had been allowed for some 
months to hold their services "within the walls." Tt was 
found that our Minister would agree to occupy two rooms in 
the proposed building as "Kooms of the United States Lega- 
tion," and by that means it was thought that we would be left 
undisturbed by the Eoman Government. 

"Toward the end of April, 1867, however, General King, 
the then American Minister, in consequence of the withdrawal 
of the appropriation for the Legation at Kome, suddenly de- 
termined to return home; and, deprived thereby of the pro- 
tection of the Legation, the proposed plan of building in 
Serny's Gardens had to be abandoned, and other arrangements 
made for a place of worship for the following year. 

" It had been intimated by the Pontifical Government that 
no objection would be made if the American Church would 
take a room outside the walls, and an unofficial pledge was 
given that, if the former English Church room was taken, 
it would be left in undisturbed possession of it. 

" The building referred to was in a most filthy and dilapi- 
dated condition, requiring very large expenditure to render it fit 
for the celebration of Divine worship. The proprietor refused 
to make the slightest repairs, and would not lower the large 
demand he made for rent. 

" It was under these circumstances that at a meeting of the 
vestry held April 23, 1867, Dr. Lyman asked for its consent 
to the securing of the room, and most generously offered to 
guarantee himself all the expenditure for repairs and for the 



22 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

lease of the building for four years. A lease of the room was 
consequently taken for four years, with the privilege of contin- 
uing it for five years longer, in the name of Mr. J. 0. Hooker, 
he being guaranteed by Dr. Lyman at the rate of six hundred 
scudi (Roman dollars) per annum, and the necessary repairs 
and alterations were begun under the direction of Mr. Hooker, 
who, remaining in Rome all summer, was better able to over- 
see and direct the work than the vestry, whose members sel- 
dom remain in Rome during the hot months. 

" Months of labor were required to make the necessary al- 
terations and repairs, and under the watchful and skillful direc- 
tion of Mr. Hooker they have resulted in procuring for us 
the present commodious chapel. To those who had, seen the 
wretched and disgusting condition of the building, and knew 
how many alterations were necessary to adapt it again to pub- 
lic worship, the cost of repairs will not seem extravagant, and 
it is in large measure owing to the constant supervision of Mr. 
Hooker that they were kept so low. They amount, including 
cost of carpet, furniture, and interest, to 18,840 Roman lire." 

A special subscription was at once started, and the 
whole of the amount raised during the winter, and the 
vestry returned a vote of thanks to Dr. Lyman, as well 
they might, for the responsibility he had assumed in 
their behalf. Without this decided measure on his 
part, the chapel would probably have come to an end 
with the withdrawal of the American Minister in that 
summer. It was the summer in which Garibaldi made 
his last attempt upon Rome, and would unquestionably 
have taken it had it not been for the return of the 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 23 

French troops. Before, however, the battle of Montana 
crushed out all hope of liberty for Rome through this 
movement, the Papal Government had been made to 
feel that the sympathy of the Roman people was over- 
whelmingly against it. One of the superior cameriere 
of the Pope told me during the following winter that 
they felt that they were walking over volcanic soil, from 
which at any moment the flames of popular wrath 
might burst forth and consume them. So, though the 
French bayonets had brought present protection to the 
Papal throne, they had not been able to bring any sense 
of security, and at the Vatican the authorities were not 
in a state of mind in which we could have counted on 
meeting with any toleration within the walls, deprived 
as the chapel now was of even the show of protection 
under the flag of a Legation. 

Until, too, the chapel was made independent of the 
Legation, it could not have any real existence as a con- 
gregation, or give any certain promise of its continu- 
ance. In spite of our formal organization, the chapel 
existed heretofore at the will of the Minister Resident, 
and practically the clergy in charge were appointed by 
him. But from this date the congregation became a 
real and permanent organization, and the vestry an 
actual power, clothed with all the authority and respon- 
sibilities that such bodies carry in the Church at home. 

In the temporary absence of Dr. Lyman in America, 
services were opened in the new chapel in the autumn 
2 



24 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

of 1867 by Bishop Talbot, of Indiana. It was my privi- 
lege to succeed him in his temporary charge, and con- 
tinue the services until the return of Dr. Lyman in 
February following. Being then a deacon, traveling on 
account of health, it was my first ministration, and so it 
happened that in that chapel without the walls of Rome 
I preached my first sermon, little thinking at the time 
what labors awaited me there. In this chapel our Church 
services were regularly held for nine years, from that 
time on, until the 24th of March last, when we left it 
reluctantly — as now endeared by many hallowed associa- 
tions — to take possession of our new church "within 
the walls." 

It will not be necessary to describe this chapel, 
known to most of my readers. The situation was in- 
convenient, and the neighborhood very objectionable; 
but inside it was comfortable, and even attractive. 
There were, however, two serious objections to it : one, 
the very trying stairway, an inclined plane, up which 
in former days, when the room was a granary, mules 
carried their loads of corn and wheat ; the other, the 
lowness of the ceiling, which was not sufficient for a 
perfect ventilation when the chapel was full. For the 
room was large, with over five hundred sittings, and, 
under the popular ministrations of Dr. Lyman, it was 
well filled during the season. 

Dr. Lyman continued in charge as rector until the 
summer of 1869, when he felt obliged to return to the 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 25 

United States. The vestry empowered him, together 
with the Right Rev. William Bacon Stevens, Bishop of 
Pennsylvania, then in charge of our churches in foreign 
lands, to fill the post. On their nomination, I went out 
to Rome in the autumn of 1869, and on my arrival Dr. 
Lyman's resignation was sent in to the vestry and ac- 
cepted, and my election as rector followed at the same 
meeting. 

The winter in which I took charge was a celebrated 
one in Rome, and a fatal one for the Papal Govern- 
ment. It was the year of the Vatican Council, the 
" Great Exposition " of the strength and the weakness 
of the Roman Church. Outwardly, the display of wide- 
spread and disciplined power was profoundly impressive, 
and every effort was made to overpower, by its mani- 
festation, the minds of both the members of the Council 
and the world looking on. Nothing could exceed the 
dramatic magnificence of the functions of that winter. 
No earthly sovereign in all history ever enjoyed the 
flattery of so universal a triumph as that which greeted 
Pius IX., when on the 8th of December, 1869, as he 
moved up the nave of St. Peter's, amid the waving 
helmets and flashing swords of his guards, all eyes in 
that world-gathered multitude turned to him, and knees 
bowed to him, and in his presence even the Host itself 
was neglected or forgotten ; or, when later in the day, 
throned in the Council-Chamber higher than the Word of 
God, more than eight hundred satraps from every part 



26 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

of the known world kissed his foot with the oath to 
obey him, as their only lord, the Pope of the Holy Ro- 
man See. And that oath, whatever interpretation may 
be put upon it by Roman archbishops here in America, 
means in the Vatican the full repudiation of any abso- 
lute loyalty elsewhere. 

But, over against this overwhelming manifestation 
of outward power and glory, there were signs that, to a 
close observer, betrayed the hollowness within. First, 
that all this apparent power was not real enough to con- 
trol the people, who came directly under the Papal rule 
itself. The Roman men, as a rule, sneered at the acts 
of the Vatican Council, and hated intensely the govern- 
ment of even their present kind-mannered Pope ; then, 
as the winter wore on and the ends of the Jesuit man- 
agers of the Council became more apparent, and their 
policy more relentless, the opposition, which included 
the ablest and most enlightened bishops in the Council, 
became open in their discontent, and the Council was 
divided into two camps, outspoken in their suspicion of 
and hostility toward one another. I have never heard 
any severer or more telling arraignment made of the 
trickery, corruption, and violence, which characterized 
the later workings of the Vatican Council than I heard 
in Rome, in the spring of 1870, from the lips of two of 
the ablest and best archbishops who were at the time 
sitting as members of the Council. But beyond even 
these signs, as the Council drew to its close, in the proc- 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 27 

lamatioD of the fatal dogma of the Papal Infallibility — 
or divinity, as it was preached in Rome — the decision 
that henceforth truth had no weight in the Roman 
Church, and liberty no place there, was proof enough 
that the whole splendid apparition of the Papal system 
had no foundation deeper or firmer than the sands of 
human policy and material power, and must pass away 
with the dark ages it had served. The observation of 
the Vatican Council, and of Rome during its sessions, 
took away from me forever all fear of the Papacy as a 
power ever able again to master or rule the world, while 
at the same time it gave me a juster perception of its 
enormous power and resources, and of the struggle which 
it will yet make for the mastery of the world. In the 
doubt and despair of reactionary days, individuals, and 
perhaps nations, will submit blindly to its delusive yoke, 
but mankind, set free by Christ Himself from this super- 
stition, as of old from the chains of heathendom, never 
will. 

During that winter the clerical element pervaded all 
society, and great efforts were made to celebrate the 
year by conversions from the foreigners in Rome. All 
the monsignori celebrated in this kind of service were 
in Rome. Special courses of sermons were preached for 
this purpose by Archbishop Manning, Monsignor Capel, 
Father Hecker, and others ; Roman princes were enlist- 
ed in the service to make an impression on unmarried 
ladies, cardinals to flatter the vanity of widows, and the 



28 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

laity assisted in the way of bringing the proper parties 
together at dinners and receptions. Rumors of many 
converts were circulated in the air. I took great pains 
to find out how many Americans were actually received 
into the Roman Church that winter. I was iD a position 
to hear, I think, of every case, for they were always 
loudly trumpeted ; and some of the most popular "Fa- 
thers " were honoring me at the time with sincere efforts 
for my conversion. I never could get the names of more 
than four American submissions to the Pope that winter 
— this from all denominations, or of people who had no 
belief — and of these four two had come to Rome prepared 
for and pledged to the step. There was a larger num- 
ber than this confirmed that winter in our little chapel, 
of people who had not belonged to our Church before. 
Further, since I am on this point, I may add that in the 
six years that have passed since the declaration of the 
Papal Infallibility, as far as I know, but two Americans 
have submitted to the Roman Church in Rome. I have 
heard that there had been one or two cases among those 
women who have married Romans ; but, if so, it has 
been done secretly, nor do they acknowledge it openly. 
The fact is, Rome is the last place in the world for any 
earnest person to become a Roman Catholic in. Illus- 
trations of gross superstition and practical idolatry are 
much too frequent there. The exhibition in this line 
made at the church of the Ara Cceli, the municipal 
church of Rome, when the benediction is given with the 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 29 

Bambino on the Feast of Epiphany, is generally a suffi- 
cient antidote to the most persuasive argument that can 
be made for the Roman claims. The fact also remains 
unanswerable, that here is a people over whom the 
Roman Church has had full control — body, soul, and 
spirit — for over a thousand years, and for whose condi- 
tion to-day the Roman Church is unqualifiedly respon- 
sible ; and, when American eyes look upon that condition, 
they do not find it satisfactory, either socially, or politi- 
cally, or religiously. What can the Roman Church — 
which boasts herself of changing not — hold out in the 
way of a future to any nation which will submit to the 
Papal yoke, other than the state to which she has re- 
duced the Roman people ? They must be accepted as 
the model sample of her work in forming and training a 
people. The infidelity of Italy — and it is wide-spread 
and deep-rooted— was the fruit of the Papal, not of the 
present Government. There has been a great and per- 
sistent exaggeration, in late years, of the growth of the 
Roman Church by individual conversions. The fact is 
that, in this country, Romanism gains comparatively 
few in this way; certainly not so many as she loses, 
but her clergy do not like to own it. I remember, how- 
ever, during the winter of the Council, hearing a discus- 
sion on this point in Rome, in a Roman Catholic circle, 
and one of their prominent bishops from America made 
the statement that, if they had held in this country the 
great element that belonged to them by immigration, and 



30 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

had made, as well, their proportionate gain upon the na- 
tive population, they would have counted in the United 
States double the numbers they do now. I asked to 
what this great loss was to be attributed. He said, "The 
common schools" 

On September 20, 1870 — a date which to future 
Romans bids fair to stand after that of "the city found- 
ed " only — the common schools, and the Bible, and 
freedom of conscience, came into the Eternal City, with 
the more modern Italian enemies of the Papacy, through 
the breach near the Porta Pia — a gate whose name 
acquired an intenser meaning to many from the fact. 
But before passing to the events which crowded upon 
us by the liberation of Rome, a few remarks on our rela- 
tions to the government which then came to an end 
there will not be out of place. 

The laws of the Papal Government prohibited all 
worship other than its own within the Papal territory ; 
but expediency has always overridden law in the history 
of the Roman Church. Non possumus at the Vatican 
means very often simply "We can't afford it." So, 
from time immemorial, the Jewish worship was tolerated 
within the Ghetto, in the very heart of Rome. The 
Jews would have it, and the Papacy could not afford to 
drive out the Jews. Next, Protestant worship had to 
be tolerated at the legations of the Protestant nations 
represented in Rome. But the English Government 
maintained no embassador or minister at Rome. An 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 31 

agent of the Foreign Office — a sort of unofficially ac- 
credited minister — looked after British interests in 
Rome. An English chapel, therefore, became a matter 
of expedient necessity, for the English-speaking visitors 
brought much money to Rome, and the spiritual inter- 
ests of the city could not be allowed to stand in the 
way of its material needs. It has always been under- 
stood in the Roman Curia that there can be — must be — 
no real conflict between money and religion. So, from 
the year 1818, an English chapel was tolerated in Rome 
without the show of protection from a legation ; but it 
was put without the Porta del Popolo, and prohibited 
from showing any external sign of its character. So 
Scotch and American services were at a later date per- 
mitted at first within the city, and later still at the same 
point without the gates ; but all under the same condi- 
tion of nominal incognito. It was really at a most 
public point of the city, the entrance to the grounds of 
the Borghese Villa, the fashionable Sunday drive and 
promenade of Rome. The carriages of the three con- 
gregations often blocked the street and gateway. The 
police were always on hand to keep the crowd of car- 
riages and their drivers in order, and, being specially 
paid on our part, were very attentive and efficient. 
Government agents maintained a constant surveillance 
over the services, to prevent Roman Catholics from at- 
tending, and to report on the character of the preaching 
— and yet the people of Rome and the Papal Govern- 



32 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

ment were supposed to be ignorant of the presence of 
our worship in Rome ! The room last occupied by us 
was taken on the recommendation of Cardinal Antoneili. 
It was rented from a friend of his, one of the gentlemen 
who bore the papal chair in St. Peter's on state occa- 
sions ; but his Eminence guarded himself at the time by- 
remarking, with a dry but not unkindly smile, " You 
know, if I were officially informed of the fact of Protes- 
tant services being held here, it would be my duty to 
prohibit them altogether." Things were in this state 
when I was in Rome in temporary charge in 1867, and 
again in 1869 ; and I wish here to acknowledge the 
general courtesy of the Papal Government toward us 
as far as ray personal experience goes. It was never 
broken by any act of petty annoyance during that time, 
although these winters were the excited ones of the last 
Garibaldian insurrection and of the Vatican Council. 

It is to be remarked here that the distinction that 
was made of " without the gates " had its ground in no 
real foundation of either civil right or ecclesiastical 
order. The Papal rule and law covered the ground out- 
side the gates as truly as that within, and the diocese 
of the Bishop of Rome was not bounded by the line of 
the walls, built by a heathen emperor. There was as 
much intrusion upon the jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
Rome in our position without the Porta del Popolo as 
there is in our present one on the Via Nazionale, within 
the city. Our exclusion without the gate was a matter 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL. 33 

of sentiment chiefly, and had no real reason in it, except 
that of an intended insult, and of being a means of fos- 
tering among the people and keeping up an association 
of contempt with our worship. I mention this expressly, 
as I have been amused to find, among clergy in England 
chiefly, but in one instance in this country, an ignorant 
idea that our late act of removing our worship within 
the walls of Rome in some way involved an intrusion 
upon the territorial rights of the Bishopric of Rome, 
which had not existed before. Indeed, a Roman Cath- 
olic archbishop — since made a cardinal — shortly after 
the laying of our corner-stone, spoke of the matter in 
this way in my hearing, but, on being asked to explain 
clearly how any real difference in our position toward 
the Roman See could arise from our change of locality, 
acknowledged that there was none, and that the inviola- 
bility of the city proper could be held a matter of senti- 
ment only. For my own part, I have not the least feel- 
ing of doubtfulness upon this question of ^intrusion, but 
my conviction of the rightfulness of our position at 
Rome rests upon somewhat different and I think surer 
grounds. I hold that the Bishop of Rome has fallen 
into such fatal heresy, has been so manifestly false to 
the Apostolic trust committed to him, as to have wholly 
forfeited those ecclesiastical rights which would other- 
wise have attached to his See ; and that it is the right 
of the Bishops of any neighboring Church to send truly 
Catholic teachers into that See, or even to reestablish 



34 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

the Catholic Episcopate there in its purity and integrity. 
The using or not using of this right is simply a question 
of expediency. It may become a duty at any time. 
For it is always to be remembered that the right of a 
people to hear the Word of God, and to have the sacra- 
ments as Christ gave them, is something far higher than 
any Episcopal right of territorial jurisdiction, however 
acquired. The cry of the famishing in the ears of the 
Lord of Hosts will be a sufficient justification for ex- 
traordinary means of relief. 



PREPAKATIONS FOE BUILDING. 35 



II. 

Fiest Steps towaed building a Chuech. 

I had offered myself for. service in the American Am- 
bulance during the Franco-German War, and was wait- 
ing an answer in Switzerland, when the movement began 
in Italy which ended in the liberation of Rome from the 
Papal yoke. I returned to Rome in the autumn of 1870 
to find it occupied by Italian troops under the general 
command of the hereditary Prince Humbert, who, as 
lieutenant-general commanding the province, occupied 
the palace of the Quirinal, and exercised a provisional 
government, until the vote of annexation, by which the 
people of Rome joined themselves to the kingdom of 
Italy, had been taken, and their request accepted by the 
national Congress. The vote for annexation had al- 
ready been given with an overwhelming majority in its 
favor, and, although the formal steps necessary for the 
admission of the Roman province into the Italian nation 
were not yet completed, the whole people felt them- 
selves to be already a part of Italy, and free to act under 
the Italian Constitution and laws. As these provide for 



36 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

the fullest freedom in the matter of religious belief and 
worship, the vestry of our congregation in Rome was 
unanimous in the feeling that our worship ought to be 
moved at once to a more convenient position within the 
city, and steps be taken to secure, by building or oth- 
erwise, a church, in which it might be permanently 
held. 

Before proceeding in this latter affair, however, it 
seemed right to learn from the authorities of the Italian 
Government whether such action on our part, however 
fully permitted by the law, would be regarded as in any 
way inexpedient at that particular moment. In every 
quarter I was received with great courtesy, and particu- 
larly by H. R. H. Prince Humbert, who, although pro- 
fessing himself a Catholic, took his stand, fully and 
squarely, on the principle of religious toleration em- 
bodied in the Italian Constitution, and added most em- 
phatically that the Government of Italy would protect 
us, and all others, in the fullest exercise of all the liberty 
promised by their laws — a promise, I may say here, 
which has been most faithfully fulfilled. 

Under these circumstances the vestry did not hesi- 
tate, at its first meeting under the new order of things, 
to pass resolutions looking toward the immediate re- 
moval of our services within the city, and the fitting up, 
or the building, of a permanent church. After careful 
consideration by a committee specially appointed for 
this purpose, it was unanimously decided that the per- 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 37 

manent church ought to be a new building. The de- 
cision of the vestry having been announced in the con- 
gregation, an immediate response came in, in the shape 
of a large subscription from Mrs. E. A. Stevens, of Ho- 
boken, N. J., to whom belongs the honor of having be- 
gun the work in this way. Indeed, the unexpected help 
thus willingly given was the thing which strengthened 
and decided me, finally, to proceed at once with the 
difficult task before us. From the beginning we recog- 
nized, at Rome, its magnitude and its responsibility. 
The building we were to do involved much more than 
the convenience and honor of our particular congrega- 
tion. It represented the Church at large, both to Roman 
Catholic and to Protestant Europe, as a body, on the 
one hand, reformed from the pagan corruptions of the 
Papacy ; on the other, freed from all state establishment, 
and political control in things spiritual. It was to be, 
necessarily, in the words of the Bishop of Gibraltar, " a 
city set upon a hill, and scanned by no very friendly 
eyes." It was much better that it should not be begun 
at all, than that, having been begun, it should fail or be 
carried out unworthily. The vestry felt, therefore, that 
it must ask for a sum " not less than $100,000," to 
carry out this work. Much interest was taken in the 
matter by the Americans in Rome, and the winter's col- 
lections amounted to about $6,000 in money, and a gift 
of pictures and statuary, to be sold for the benefit of the 
church, to which the following artists in Rome contrib- 



38 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

uted : D. Maitland Armstrong, C. C. Coleman, C. Cole- 
man, Charles Temple Dix, William Graham, William H. 
Haseltine, H. Haseltine, G. Lines, J. O'B. Inman, W. H. 
Rinehart, George Simmonds, Prince George von Solms, 
Luther Terry, Mr. Tilton, E. Yedder, F. C. Welsch, Abby 
O. Williams, Mary E. Williams, and George H. Yewell. 
Encouraged by these results, at the request of the 
vestry, I returned to the United States in the early sum- 
mer of 1871, and appealed to the Church at large for aid 
in carrying out the work for the Church, which seemed 
to have been laid upon us in our sphere of duty. I give 
here, in full, the first circular issued in this behalf, which 
was drawn up hastily after consulting those of the bish- 
ops and prominent laity of the Church that I could most 
easily reach: 

TO THE FRIENDS OF THE AMERICAN CHAPEL, 
ROME. 

At a meeting of the Vestry of the Ameeican Chapel 
Rome, Italy, held November 2, 1870, it was resolved— 

I. In view of the late political changes in Italy, which 
have opened the city of Rome for free worship to all Chris- 
tians—that it is expedient that the American Church be moved 
within the city gates at the earliest day practicable. 

II. That a committee of three members of the Yestry be 
appointed at once to take into full consideration the whole 
question of how best to provide for future services within the 
city, whether by securing and fitting up some suitable building, 
or by erecting a new church of our own. 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 39 

At subsequent meetings of the Vestry, held in February 
and April, it was resolved : 

III. To undertake the building of a new church upon 
ground of our own, within the walls of Kome, for the perma- 
nent worship of the American congregation. 

IV. To appeal to the congregation and to the friends of 
the chapel at home, for a sum not less than $100,000, for this 
object. 

V. That the Kector be requested to visit the United States 
during the coming summer and make a special appeal for help 
in this undertaking, in which the whole Church has an interest. 

Kobeet J. Kevin, )■ Rector. 

"Wm. H. Heeeiman, 



, Wardens. 
D. Maitland Aemsteong, 

TVm. Stanley Haseltine, 1 

De. Heney Paemly, 

John V. Beam, Je., [> Vestrymen. 

De. F. "W. Patteeson, 

F. Ceowninshield,. 



Lancastee, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1871. 

In accordance with the action set forth in the foregoing 
resolutions, I have returned to America, and now make an 
earnest appeal, on behalf of our new undertaking, to the friends 
of our chapel throughout the country, and to all persons inter- 
ested in the growth of religious liberty in Italy ; for, whatever 
may be its future political relations, Eome must always be the 
controlling moral capital of Italy. 

In asking help for the good work we have begun there, at 
a time like the present, it is necessary that I should make some 
statement of its need, and of the facts and reasons which de- 
termined our action into the shape that it has taken : 



40 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

1. As to the present expediency of our coming within the 
city. 

Our present place of worship, an old granary, outside the 
Porta del Popolo, is extremely inconvenient of access on foot, 
on account of the narrowness of the always-crowded gate, and 
the filth of the street leading to it, which is used as a hog-mar- 
ket. 

Its distance, too, is a daily -increasing objection. The for- 
eign population has, for some years, been steadily withdrawing 
itself from the quarter Del Popolo toward the higher and 
healthier situations, in the direction of the railway-station. 
And there now is beginning to spring up, as it were by magic, 
beside the ruins of old Kome, a new city which will soon be- 
come the favorite residence of all foreigners. The present 
chapel is altogether too distant from this quarter to meet its 
needs. But even were there no sufficient material reasons for 
our occupying now a more convenient situation within the city, 
the respect due to our faith and national name requires that 
we should remove from ourselves the reproach of being held 
without the gates, as an unclean thing, " with the swine," as 
the Papal monsignori were delighted to describe it. 

2. As to the expediency of building a new edifice, rather 
than of hiring, or even buying, some existing building. 

It was felt primarily that the moral effect would be much 
better upon our own congregation, and upon the liberal Catho- 
lic party, which still exists within the Eoman Church in Italy, 
and which is casting about earnestly, but darkly, for some 
sound principle of reform from the Papal corruptions, which 
they feel have wellnigh crushed out Christianity from their 
nation. 

To a people like the Italians — all eye and ear — the very 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 41 

stones, the spire and chimes, of a distinctive church-building, 
will teach more of the strength and reality of our Christianity 
than any amount of writings that might be distributed among 
them ; and will be, as well, a constant visible witness to them 
that religious liberty, and the rights of the human conscience, 
have at last found a home in the city of the Popes and the 
Caesars. For this very reason, the Italian Government wel- 
comes our project with undisguised satisfaction, and guarantees 
us the fullest protection in our work that the state can afford. 
And in this they but fall in with the sentiment of the Roman 
people, who are more than contented to see anything done 
that will attract to their city, or prolong the stay there of, the 
Americans, who are notoriously their most profitable visitors. 
Apart, however, from this motive of self-interest, there is none 
of the hostility felt in Rome to the establishment of an Ameri- 
can church that has been shown against certain native forms 
of worship — Waldensian and Baptist — that have lately been in- 
troduced there. And, even among that portion of the omce- 
holding priests who still adhere to the fond traditions of the 
Vatican, as to the divine right of Popes over all things, visible 
and invisible, there is growing up a sentiment of great tolera- 
tion toward the foreign services in Rome, which they have 
come to accept as one of the hard necessities of the (to their 
minds) sadly-disjointed times. 

Should it yet be objected that it would be cheaper, and an- 
swer every purpose for us, to occupy some hired room, or secure 
some abandoned Roman church, I reply, unhesitatingly, that it 
would not be cheaper in the end ; and that every clergyman 
knows perfectly that it will not answer as well, spiritually, or 
in any other way, to hold a congregation in a hired room, as in 
his own church. 



42 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

The congregation for which I plead is a large one, and is 
steadily increasing every year. It is one, too, that must al- 
ways exercise a wide influence for good or evil to the Church. 
Already it has an average attendance, during the winter season, 
of from four to five hundred; and I would remind my brethren 
of the clergy that there is scarcely one of their congregations 
that does not every year have some of its members worshiping 
in our upper room at Rome. The money that we ask is, after 
all, only what is now the most ordinary outlay every year for 
far less important congregations at home. 

As to our occupying a disused Komau church, it is almost 
an impossibility. The parish churches in Kome have not been, 
and will not be confiscated by the Government, whatever may 
be the case with the monastic property. It will be many years 
before they come naturally into the market, and then we could 
never hope to get one in a better quarter, where their present 
congregations will always be able to sustain them. Beyond 
this, the first cost would be heavy ; the fitting up would be very 
expensive, and not one in fifty could ever be made comfortable 
or healthful for our mode of worship. 

Moreover, for us to occupy a Roman church would excite 
much ill-feeling against us among the superstitious people, and 
greatly impair our influence with the liberal Catholics. 

Lastly, comes up the question as to the prudence of invest- 
ing money, at present, in building in a city which it is said may 
at any time revert to the Papal power. 

Those who live there, and have studied the temper of the 
Italian people in the crisis through which they are passing, 
have no fear of such a misfortune. Certainly, this at least is an 
impossibility, that the temporal power of the Pope should ever 
be reestablished in Rome under the same conditions of abso- 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 43 

lutism with which it oppressed mankind and outraged civiliza- 
tion up to October of last year. The age will not bear it. 
The French War, nay, our own war, must be undone first, and 
the principles of liberty and unity which tbey have established 
blotted out of the world's thinking. In Italy, to-day, the feel- 
ing of nationality is burning as intensely as it ever did with us, 
during the heat of our late war, and as a nation they are ready 
now to figbt to their last lira, and tbeir last man, for their newly- 
acquired unity. 

Should, however, through any overpowering combination 
of foreign nations, the temporal power of the Papacy ever be 
reestablished in Rome under a modified form, our rights in any 
property that we might have acquired by fair purchase under a 
de facto government, provided we keep ourselves clear of all 
complication with confiscated property, would have to be re- 
spected, or full indemnity assured us. 

All of these points came up for full and careful thought in 
the deliberations of the Vestry, and the decisions reached were 
in every case unanimous. I may mention here, in proof of the 
confidence felt by the American residents in our undertaking, 
that besides money subscriptions I have received contributions 
in Eome, of original works of art, from over twenty artists. 
Indeed, every American painter in Rome — not a Roman Cath- 
olic — has in this way contributed of his own labor toward our 
undertaking. These works will be put on exhibition in New 
York and Philadelphia, and sold in the fall for the benefit of 
the New American Church, Eome. 

We intend to build a stone church, distinctively Gothic in 
style, to seat not less than seven hundred, and of such propor- 
tions and workmanship as shall be in some measure worthy to 
represent, in the Old World's capital, our faith and our nation. 



44 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

We wish, also to secure ground enough adjoining the church 
to put up at a future day a building which shall contain an 
apartment for the clergyman ; rooms for an Infants' Nursery, 
already in successful operation in a hired apartment, and also 
two or three rooms to which single travelers may be removed 
in case of sickness, from the neglect and extortion of the hotels. 
The estimate of the Yestry is designed to cover all these points ; 
but now we want $70,000 for church lot and building. 

It is my hope to return to my field of work in November, 
with the glad assurance that we can go forward immediately 
with our work ; to lay the corner-stone of our new church by 
Christmas of this year, and, by the blessing of God, to open the 
same for regular service by Easter-day, 1873. 

Feeling that our work is of no merely local account, but one 
that touches weighty general interests, that it has already estab- 
lished ties for itself in many an American home, and will be 
hereafter a blessing to faithful people from every diocese in our 
wide land, I appeal with confidence to my Christian fellow- 
countrymen for that generous assistance in carrying it out 
which its practical usefulness has a right to claim, and which 
the national character for liberality warrants me in asking. 

Eobeet J. NEvm, 
Sector of Grace Church, Borne. 
(Address : No. 1 East Thirtieth Street, New York City.) 

All subscriptions to be forwarded to care of 

Messrs. Beown Beos., Bankers, 

Wall Street, New York. 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 45 

Episcopal Eooms, Philadelphia, June 30, 1871. 

The plan set forth in the appeal of the Kev. Eobert J. 
Nevix, Kector of Grace Church, Eome, Italy, meets my full 
approbation. 

The providence of God has so markedly opened to us a door 
of entrance into that city, that we should he recreant to our 
duty did we not embrace the opportunity of carrying out to 
completion the work which the Yestry has so wisely inau- 
gurated. 

We need a church in Eome, because of the hundreds and 
thousands of our countrymen who annually resort thither. 

We need a church in Eome, as the type and representative 
of our pure branch of the one Holy and Apostolic Church. 

We need a church there, as the memorial and exponent of 
that freedom of conscience and religious liberty which is the 
priceless privilege guaranteed to us by our American institu- 
tions. 

Every motive should stir us up to immediate action; and I 
trust that a prompt and liberal response will enable the zealous 
and intelligent Eector to return laden with the gifts of love 
and faith, by which the long-desired church shall be erected, 
and consecrated to the worship of Almighty God, according to 
the hallowed Liturgy of our Book of Common Prayer. 

Wm. Bacon Stevens, 
Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and Bishop in charge of 

the Churches in Europe, in union with the General Conven- 
tion of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 



I most heartily concur in the above recommendation and 
appeal. B. B. Smith, 

Bishop of Kentucky, and Presiding Bishop, 



46 



ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 



I cordially concur in the approval of the Rev. Mr. Kevin's 
undertaking, as expressed by the Bishop of Pennsylvania. 

Hoeatio Potter, 
New Yoek, July 15, 1871. Bishop of New York. 



I rejoice in this movement, and commend it heartily. 

G. T. Bedell, 
Assista?it Bishop of Diocese of Ohio. 



The following Bishops have also authorized the use of their 
names in cordial indorsement of the work and plan above set 
forth : 



William R. Whittingham, 

Bishop of Maryland. 
John Johns, 

Bishop of Virginia. 
H. B. Whipple, 

Bishop of Minnesota. 
Aethtte Cleveland Coxe, 

Bishop of Western New York. 

A. N". LlTTLEJOHN, 

Bishop of Long Island. 
F. D. Huntington, 
Bishop of Central New York. 



Manton Eastbuen, 

Bishop of Massachusetts. 
J. Williams, 

Bishop of Connecticut. 
Thomas M. Claek, 

Bishop of Rhode Island. 
Wm. Ht. Odenheimee, 

Bishop of New Jersey. 
John B. Keefoot, 

Bishop of Pittsburg. 
William Ceoswell Doane, 

Bishop of Albany. 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 4? 

GENERAL COMMITTEE. 

Hon. Hamilton Fish, John David "Wolfe, 

Major- General John A. Dix, Henet Chatxncey, 

Feedeeio G. Fostee, Geoege Kemp, 

James M. Beown, William H. Scott, 

Wm. W. Weight, Oelando Meads, 

John Welsh, Governor H. P. Baldwin, 

John H. Shoenbeegeb, F. W. Beune, 

Hon. E. E. Miidge, Hon. J. V. L. Petjyn, 

Wm. T. Blodgett. J. Pieepont Moegan. 

From all sides the undertaking thus begun met a 
warm approval and encouragement. The Bishop of 
Delaware alone, of those applied to, declined to give 
his indorsement. I fondly imagined that with an in- 
dorsement so strong as the above, in a body like ours, 
the work was almost done. I had as yet had no expe- 
rience in raising money for any Church work, and had 
not learned how inferior our organization is to that of 
most of the denominations about us for the purpose of 
raising money for any general work, nor had I the least 
suspicion of how narrowing our parish and diocesan 
system is to the sympathies of our clergy. It is a very 
easy thing for the lower, because somewhat selfish, love 
and care for the parish or diocese, to supplant the higher 
love for Christ's body, the Church. 

Difficulties were at once raised in regard to the man- 
ner in which the property was to be held, and this 
nearly blocked all my efforts during that summer. It 
3 



48 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

was questioned whether the vestry of the church could 
hold property under the Italian laws, and then great 
objections were raised to the propert} 7 being held at all 
by a body like the vestry at Rome, largely composed 
as it is of very transient elements. This matter had 
already been considered by the vestry itself at Rome, 
which had agreed to the plan proposed by me of plac- 
ing the title to the property in a board of trustees, to 
be incorporated by special charter in America, that 
should hold the property in trust perpetually for the 
Church at large, but allow to the vestry as tenant the 
control of the current administration of the congrega- 
tion. Such an arrangement, I had already ascertained, 
could be carried out under the Italian laws. But, when 
it came to putting this plan into practical shape at home, 
great difficulties were found in adjusting the precise 
relations of the vestry to this board of trustees, and to 
the ecclesiastical authorities of the Church. In order 
not to be stopped entirely in the work of raising money, 
I had appointed a general committee of prominent lay- 
men in whose charge the funds raised by me were to 
be placed, and whose names were to be a guarantee to 
the givers that the title to the property should be 
lodged in safe hands. It was necessary, therefore, to 
consult this committee in regard to the appointment of 
the trustees and the provisions of the charter under 
which they were to hold the property. Party feeling 
was at the time running high in the Church, and it re- 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 49 

quired much care and firmness to prevent our under- 
taking from passing, on one side or the other, under 
partisan control. A moment's reflection will, I think, 
satisfy every unprejudiced person that it is not only a 
matter of expediency but of right that all our foreign 
chapels should be held strictly free from party influ- 
ences or character, and be made to represent as faith- 
fully as possible in their teaching and services the gen- 
eral character and feeling of the Church. And yet I was 
made to feel very soon that, if I would only allow the 
congregation at Rome to pass distinctly under party 
control, the work of raising the money wanted would be 
made very easy indeed. 

Another great difficulty that I soon felt was a very 
serious one, and arose from the loose nature of the eccle- 
siastical relations in which the foreign chapels stand to 
the Church at home. We do not come under the head 
of either foreign or domestic missions, although doing 
a good deal of the work of both. So, the missionary 
boards cannot be looked to for help or protection. We 
are accepted as parishes under the General Convention, 
but we are allowed no representation either directly or 
through any diocese ; and, although subjected to all the 
restraints of Episcopal direction, we have no permanent 
bishop of our own to whom we can look for a father's 
counsel or advice. 1 Even with the best will in the 

1 Our foreign chapels are placed by the Canon of 1859 under the 
oversight of the Presiding Bishop, and, as he is generally too old or 



50 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

world, the nature of the relation in which the bishop 
in charge stands to the work is such that he can 
do very little officially to help any foreign chapel in 
any emergency that may be upon it. Our foreign 
chapels have grown up of themselves, without help from 
the Church, and this very fact is in itself the best proof 
of the reality of their work and the necessity for them. 
These congregations were left to organize themselves, 
and, being organized and having applied severally to be 
received under the care of the General Convention, they 
have been received to the obligations of our constitution 
and laws, but to no rights in the Church. They have 
done a very real work for the Church, in bringing into 
her a considerable membership, and in preserving to the 
Church a still larger body of her straying children ; and 
they have been self-supporting in this far, at least, that 
the money raised for them has never come from the 
Church as a body, or through any of her societies or 
agencies, but has been gathered by the personal labors 
of those who, at home or abroad, have interested them- 
selves in the foreign fields. 

infirm to exercise it personally, he is authorized to devolve the charge 
upon any other bishop of the American Church whom he may see fit 
to appoint, for a term which may not overpass the next ensuing meet- 
ing of the General Convention. This arrangement secures, it will 
be seen, a constant change in the bishops in charge of the foreign 
churches, and, as a natural result of this, that they can never be ex- 
pected to have any thorough knowledge of the very difficult and 
varied field over which they are placed. 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 51 

This want of any representation in the Church at 
home made itself very heavily felt, when it came to the 
work of raising funds for our proposed building, and 
made the creation of a home board of trustees seem to 
me more desirable than ever, for I hoped to find in them 
a body who would be active in keeping up a positive 
interest in our work at home. At the same time the 
then bishop in charge, the Right Rev. William Bacon 
Stevens, who had interested himself warmly in our un- 
dertaking from its beginning, was led, in the hope of 
supplying in a measure the same general want, to ap- 
prove of the plan for creating a standing committee for 
the foreign churches who should serve as a permanent 
council of advice to the bishop in charge. This plan 
was carried into effect at the General Convention of 
1871, it being provided that four members should be 
chosen by the General Convention, and one each by the 
vestries of the foreign chapels. Dr. Henry C. Potter, 
of Grace Church, New York, was elected to represent 
the church at Rome, and, I may say here, has been the 
chief instrument among our clergy at Rome in helping 
to place in its present beautiful sanctuary the worship 
which his father began in that city in 1859, in the 
secrecy of a private chamber. 

The summer of 1871 was thus almost entirely con- 
sumed in arranging for the future tenure and constitu- 
tion of our church, and I was able to raise only about 
$11,000, before the great fire in Chicago effectually 



52 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

stopped all giving to foreign charities. The beginning 
of this collection at home was made by the late John 
David Wolfe, Esq., who stepped into the vestry-room 
after I had preached on the subject one Sunday at Allr 
Saints' Chapel, Newport, and promised me $1,000 and 
his support in the work. Mr. Wolfe became the first 
chairman of the General Committee for raising funds, 
and was also one of the original trustees of the church. 
At his house were held all the first meetings of the 
General Committee ; and his death, while the work was 
yet in its beginnings, was a very great loss to us abroad, 
as it was to the whole Church at home. This board was 
created by the Legislature of the State of New York in 
the following spring, under the name of the " Trustees 
of St. Paul's American Protestant Episcopal Church, 
Rome." The original incorporators were: 

Hon. Hamilton Fish, Few York. 
John David Wolfe, " 

Heney Chaunoey, " 

Geoege Kemp, " 

Feedeeic G. Fostee, " 

John Welsh, Philadelphia. 

Eev. R. J. Nevin, Eome. 

In the following year the original act was amended 
so as to bring it more closely into conformity with the 
constitution of the Church, and Messrs. J. Pierpont 
Morgan and Enoch R. Mudge were named trustees 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 53 

in place of Mr. Wolfe, deceased, and Mr. Kemp, re- 
signed. 

While the title to the property is lodged in the hands 
of this board, the act recognizes the vestry, which shall 
be elected in accordance with the constitution or articles 
of organization of the congregation at Rome, as charged 
with " the immediate management and the control of the 
said St. Paul's Church, and the maintenance of the church 
edifice and other property thereof," subject always to an 
accountability to the trustees. The vestry enjoys all the 
rights and powers usual to a vestry at home, with the 
one limitation only, that the consent of the Board of 
Trustees shall be necessary to confirm its election of a 
rector. 

Toward the end of that year (1871), and during the 
visitation of the Right Rev. Bishop Stevens, the name 
of the congregation was changed from " Grace Church " 
to " St. Paul's Church." The former name was utterly 
without meaning in Italian ears. The idea of grace in a 
Roman mind is hopelessly associated with the Madonna, 
and, had we attempted to carry over the original name 
of the chapel to the new church, it would have stood to 
the popular mind as the church of the "Madonna delle 
Grazie." The name St. Paul's has been most happy. 
Near by is the house of Pudens, where the apostle un- 
doubtedly preached. His martyrdom at Rome no one 
ever has questioned. He was the great Apostle to the 
Gentiles, whose children we are. In his writings, above 



54 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

all others of the sacred books, do we find most clearly 
set forth the great principles of faith, and liberty, and a 
pure conscience, for which our Church is protestant at 
Rome. Finally, by a singularly significant omission, 
there is no Roman church dedicated to St. Paul within 
the city walls. 1 There is no use trying to conceal it, 
St. Paul has not been for many, many centuries, in much 
favor at the Vatican. The Roman people were quick to 
note this, and the name " St. Paul's within the Walls " 
was at once taken up in contradistinction from the great 
Basilica, which has from time immemorial been known 
as " St. Paul's without the walls." I think it was Pere 
Hyacinth e who remarked on the strangeness of this, that 
St. Paul should only after eighteen centuries have found 
his way back into Rome via America. 

In the spring of 1872, after long endeavors and re- 
peated disappointments, we were able to secure a singu- 
larly advantageous building-site on the Via Nazionale, 
at the corner of the Via Napoli. This part of the city 
was chosen as being the centre of those new quarters 
which, by reason of their superior healthfulness and 
freedom from the danger of inundation, must pres- 
ently become the favorite residence of the foreign 
population of Rome. The lot has a frontage of 101 
feet on the Via Nazionale, and on the Via Napoli of 
182 feet. 

1 The Church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo, on the Ccelian, is not 
named after the apostles, but after two soldier-martyrs of later date. 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 55 

The Via Nazionale is the widest, and, when finished, 
will be the handsomest street of Rome. Beginning at 
the Piazza of the Termini, immediately opposite to the 
Church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli, which Michael Angelo 
constructed out of the ruined walls of the Baths of Dio- 
cletian, it runs in a straight line, and by an easy grade, 
to the Piazza di Yenezia at the end of the Corso. It be- 
comes, thus, the connecting boulevard between old, or 
rather mediaeval, and new Rome. The church is situated 
on it at one short block from the point where it crosses 
the Via Quattro Fontane. It is close to the Hotel Quiri- 
nale, and not far from the H6tel Costanzi, the two largest 
hotels in Rome. It was feared, when we began to build, 
that we were going too far out in the direction of the 
new quarters, but already the city has been built out far 
beyond the church, which, from the rapid movement of 
the foreign population into the new quarters, will, within 
a very short time, stand central to the congregation 
which worships in it. 

The ground was bought from an Italian deputy 
named Calvo. He had it from the late Monsignore di 
Merode, the Pope's Secretary of War, who again bought 
it from the Barberini Nuns, a short time before the 
downfall of the Pope's temporal power. The nuns had 
held it, I believe, for a couple of centuries. The ad- 
vance in its value from the time when Monsignore di 
Merode bought it from the nuns was just fifteen hun- 
dred per cent., which may serve as an index as to the 



56 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

popular estimation of the two governments, the Papal 
and the Italian. 

I returned that summer again to America and raised 
enough money to make the vestry feel safe in ordering 
a beginning to be made. Accordingly, on the 5th of 
November, 1872, I broke ground with my own hand for 
the foundations of the building, with heart-felt prayer 
to God that His blessing might be upon our work, and 
that it might always stand for the cause of light, and 
truth, and freedom, which is the cause of Christ. 

As we carried down the ldrge excavations necessary 
for the cellars and the foundation-walls, we discovered 
to our dismay that the loose soil — the accumulations 
of repeated overthrows, and centuries of decay — ex- 
tended to a depth much beyond what we anticipated, 
and it was necessary to carry the foundations through 
this to rock or soil that had never been disturbed. This 
was found finally at depths ranging from thirty to fifty - 
one feet, but everywhere the foundation-walls were 
rested finally upon the virgin clay. Under the apse of 
the church, well-preserved walls, much blackened by fire, 
were found at a depth of forty feet and over. Among 
these ruins were picked up some copper coins of the 
date of Nero. We were able to get down the exca- 
vations at the northeast corner of the church in time 
to lay the foundation-stone on the 25th of January, 
1873 ; but the whole winter and following summer were 
spent in getting foundations for the rest of the build- 



PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING. 57 

ing, and in building walls which are lost to view under 
the soil. Indeed, at the apse, the walls beneath the 
ground are higher than those above. The expense in- 
volved in this was also very heavy, but there was no 
help for it. The church could not afford to build on 
any but the surest foundations in Rome. 






58 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 



III. 

The Laying of the Coenee-Stone. 

On the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 
25, 1873, it was my high privilege — acting for the Bishop 
in charge, the Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens — to lay 
the corner-stone of our church in Rome, the first, as I 
noted above, dedicated to St. Paul within the walls of 
the city where he ended his preaching and labors for 
Christ Jesus. Without further remark on the ceremony, 
I give the account furnished to the Churchman by a 
writer whose well-known initials will be at once recog- 
nized by all who have interested themselves in the work 
of the Church abroad ; the few remarks made by myself 
upon the occasion ; and the address of the Lord Bishop 
of Derry : 

Eome, January 27, 18T3. 
Several of the Roman papers of yesterday or to-day give 
more or less detailed accounts ot an event which must have 
awakened unwonted reflections in the mind of many a thoughtful 
Roman ; the first stone has been freely, formally, and openly 
laid, of a church which is designed to rise toward heaven, a 
solemn witness, in this papal city, of a faith which is Catholic 
without being papal, and Protestant without ceasing to be Oath- 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 59 

olic. If the completed church arrests the attention of Italians 
in any proportion to the effect of this laying of its corner-stone, 
the Festival of the Conversion of St. Paul, 1873, will he an 
epoch, not merely as a friend said to me, in the history of our 
Church, hut in that of the Church of Italy as well. 

Grace Church, Eome, was organized — as, perhaps, you 
know — in the month of November, 1859, as the result of a very 
modest initiative ; and services were conducted for two suc- 
cessive seasons in the residence of the then American Minister 
Eesident, Mr. John P. Stockton, to whose fostering interest it 
was very greatly indebted for its power to get its first footing. 
These services were interrupted by the breaking out of our civil 
war ; as there was no American Minister in Eome for a year 
or more, and consequently no possibility of continuing them. 
But the organization perfected before secured the permanenco 
of the church, and the vestry were ready to unite with the Eev, 
Dr. Butler, who came out in 1862, in reopening our chapel. 
Dr. Butler remained but one season, and there was another in- 
terruption for the winter of 1864. The following fall the Eev. 
Dr. Lyman was chosen rector, and took up the work in Eome 
for the following five years. To him is due the credit of put- 
ting Grace Church on a firmer basis than it had had before. 
Deprived, in 1867, of the protection of the Legation, which was 
then suppressed by Congress, Dr. Lyman secured a location 
just without the Porta del Popolo ; had it fitted up in a most 
attractive, comfortable, and churchly manner, and there the 
congregation, partly resident and partly floating, of Grace 
Church have worshiped to the present time. In 1869 Dr. 
Lyman was succeeded in the rectorship by the Eev. Eobert J. 
Nevin, whose privilege it has been to witness and to take ad- 
vantage of the great change through which Eome passed, when 



60 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

the troops of free Italy entered at the Porta Pia, and it became 
the Italian capital. 

No time was now lost. At the first meeting of the vestry 
after this event — in November, 1870 — it was at once resolved 
to build a church, and a handsome subscription was secured 
that winter toward it. " Honor to whom honor " — from that 
time to this, the unwearied exertions, the unflagging patience, 
tact, wisdom, and faith of our chaplain have carried the project 
forward, making headway against perplexities and obstacles 
here at Kome of which the Church knows little or noth- 
ing, and also against that general indifference at home of 
which the Church will be some day, if it is not now, heartily 
ashamed. 

On Thursday last Mr. Nevin and I went up to see the spot. 
It had been necessary to dig down fully forty feet to lay the 
sub-foundations ; and as we leaned over the boarding, and 
looked down to the depths below, and, when all was ready, 
dropped from our own hands, with an ejaculated invocation, 

the first stones of a solid base of concrete and Eoman cement 

stones which shall never again be seen while the church shall 
stand— I blessed God for those living stones which the great 
Builder of His Holy Church had laid far down out of sight, and 
never to be known by men, upon which to rear His spiritual 
temple, " all glorious within." Twenty feet of concrete and 
cement were to be laid and leveled for the reception of the 
foundation-walls, and these were to be begun about as many 
feet yet below the surface. 

The services on Saturday— St. Paul's Day— were begun by 
Morning Prayer and the Holy Communion at the chapel, at ten 
o'clock. The day was rainy ; but about two o'clock the rain 
ceased for a while ; indeed, the sun came out warm and dazzling 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 61 

at one time, though the rain fell heavily once more when all 
was over. 

At 2.15 o'clock the clergy assembled in the little building 
of the clerk of the works, while some two hundred persons, in- 
cluding many ladies, gathered around the excavations. The 
Hon. George P. Marsh, our Minister to Italy, was among the 
number, and several Italians, including some deputies in Parlia- 
ment, and others of prominent social rank. 

It was a pleasant feature of the occasion that not only had 
we an Irish bishop with us — the Rt. Rev. William Alexander, 
Bishop of Perry — but the English clergy also united with us 
heartily, indeed, even outnumbering those of our own Church. 
Besides the Bishop and his chaplain, the Rev. Geoffrey Lefroy, 
there were present the Rev. J. B. Grant, Chaplain of the Eng- 
lish Church at Rome, and the Rev. A. L. Jukes, Assistant Chap- 
lain ; the Rev. T. T. Carter, of Clewer, and the Rev. Messrs. 
J. H. Clayton, C. W. Jones, S. B. Burtchael, C. Hole, and R. 
"Ware. In addition to our rector, the Rev. Robert J. Nevin, the 
American Church was represented by the Rev. W. 0. Lamson, 
the founder and first rector of our first church in Europe (Holy 
Trinity, in Paris), and thus the inaugurator of our Church work, 
once so undervalued, but now generally recognized as so im- 
portant, of providing for the religious wants of our Church's 
absentees ; and also by the Rev. "W. C. Langdon, the Rev. Dr. 
S. Hollings worth, and the Rev. Messrs. D. L. Schwartz, and 
J. B. Wetherill. 

Moving from the robing-room, the committee of the English 
Church proceeded, followed by the vestry of St. Paul's, then 
by the clergy, English and American together, and lastly by the 
Lord Bishop of Derry, all, as we advanced, reciting antipho- 
nally cxxii. and lxxxiv. Psalms, led by the Rev. Mr. Lamson. 






62 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

Arrived upon the site, the Lord's Prayer and selected Collects 
were said by the Rev. Mr. Langdon, after which the Rev. Mr. 
Grant, the English chaplain, read the tenth and eleventh verses 
of the third chapter of the book of Ezra, and the Rev. Mr. 
Wetherill led in the antiphonal recitation of the cxxxvi. Psalm. 

The Rev. Mr. Nevin, then advancing to the corner-stone, read 
a list of the articles to be deposited therein, which were placed 
in the leaden box one by one, as named. These were as fol- 
lows : Holy Bible and Book of Common Prayer, both of Amer- 
ican editions ; Hymnal ; Church Almanac for 1873 ; form of 
the service used on the occasion ; design of the church to be 
erected ; circulars connected with the work ; list of subscrip- 
tions to date ; list of trustees and vestry ; American coins and 
currency ; a copy of the Churchman and of the Church Journal, 
as well as of the Roman papers of the morning ; and, finally, a 
brick taken from Independence Hall, Philadelphia. The rector 
also stated that the stone which would be inserted in the wall 
above the ground, to indicate where the corner-stone lay below, 
had been sent from his former parish at Bethlehem, Pennsylva- 
nia, accompanied by a generous contribution toward the build- 
ing fund. He then, while the workmen were soldering up the 
box, and securing it in the stone, made a brief statement of the 
history of the church, and of the circumstances under which 
they were then gathered together. 

When all was ready, he took the trowel in his hand, saying, 
" Our help is in the name of the Lord," to which the other clergy 
and people responded, "Who hath made heaven and earth;" 
and all together, " Except the Lord build the house, their labor 
is but vain that build it." He then struck the stones three 
times, with the words : " In the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. Acting as the delegate and 



THE LAYING OF THE COKNER-STONE. 63 

representative of the Et. Eev. William Bacon Stevens, D. D., 
Bishop of Pennsylvania, and through him of the Presiding 
Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal* Church in the United 
States of America, I lay the corner-stone of an edifice to be 
here erected by the name of Saint Paul's Church, Eome, to 
be devoted," etc., according to the usual form ; and as the 
stone was lowered down to its resting-place, the clergy and 
people sang, with full voice, the hymn " Before Jehovah's awful 
throne." 

Upon the conclusion of the hymn the Lord Bishop of Derry 
advanced and addressed the assembly in an earnest and most 
appropriate manner, dwelling upon the singular importance and 
significance of the occasion, and congratulating the American 
Church upon being the first to lay the foundation of a temple of 
the reformed Faith in this ancient city. The bishop then read 
the closing Collects and pronounced the benediction, and the 
clergy returned to their provisional robing-room, clergy and 
laity at once gathering round the rector to offer him their warm 
congratulations. 

In these congratulations the whole Church owes it to herself 
heartily to unite. The Church has a representative here in 
Rome who is an honor to her, and who is doing a good and 
great work, whose value the future only can reveal. 

Indeed, the general religious tone of English-speaking relig- 
ious circles here, and th.e manner in which our peoples and our 
communions are presented to the observing world at Eome, is 
a ground for devout thanksgiving. An American friend — not 
an Episcopalian — who has lately come here to reside, spoke to 
me to-day of what he felt to be the high religious tone of the 
foreign Churches here. The English, American, and Scotch 
chaplains are all spoken of by others than their own flocks with 



64 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

deep respect ; the religious influence of each and all is real ; 
there is no contention either between them or within their re- 
spective congregations, and " the quiet, earnest, religious charac- 
ter of the English-speaking colony at Rome," said my friend, 
" and our Sunday here, remind me more of the Lord's-day of 
a New England town, than anything I have seen in Europe." 
For my own part, I frankly say that such is very much my 
own impression from the little I have had the opportunity of 
seeing ; and the religious rest which I enjoy here — here in the 
very centre of much that has anything but "made for peace" 
to the past of Christendom — has been very precious to me. 
And when I see what a position our dear Church holds in this 
city of Rome, I cannot, as a Churchman and as a clergyman, 
withhold the sincere and earnest tribute of my admiration and 
gratitude to him to whom, under God, all this is due. 

Let the Church come up then, at once and generously, to- 
help in the building of St. Paul's Church. The contract has 
been executed that will secure its completion about the time of 
our next General Convention. It is estimated to cost, including 
the tower, but exclusive of rectory, organ, bells, etc., $60,000, 
of which something more than one-half has already been ob- 
tained. To contribute toward the erection of such a church is 
a holy privilege, and the Church will, before long, realize that 
it is so ; and when the last stone is set and paid for, and the next 
General Convention makes provision for its consecration, many 
will wish that they could but have had the privilege of uniting 
in the erection of a temple which will not only be a blessing to 
the children of our Church who shall hereafter wander here, 
but which rises to mark the coming of a new era in the history 
of the Church of Christ. W. C. L. 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 65 

While the leaden box of deposits was being sealed 
up, the Rev. Mr. Nevin said : 

It is not my purpose to make an address, though many 
thoughts crowd my mind for utterance at such a time, but I 
wish to put here on record some facts in the past history of 
our chapel, and make acknowledgment of things for which we 
have reason to feel thankful. 

This congregation was organized, for permanent American 
worship in Eome, in the year 1859. The rector then was the 
Eev. "William Chauncey Langdon, and it adds no little to the 
happy features of the day that he has been able to be present 
with us, and take part in this service. 

In the year 1867 the services were moved without the walls, 
to the chapel still occupied beyond the Porta del Popolo. This 
under the rectorship of my immediate predecessor, the Eev. 
Theodore B. Lyman, D. D., to whose energy the congregation 
owes its permanent and independent establishment at the time 
when our Government felt itself obliged to withdraw its repre- 
sentative from the Papal court. 

On the 2d day of November, 1870, almost immediately 
after the Italian forces had opened the way for constitutional 
government within this city, the vestry resolved "that it is 
expedient that the American Church be moved within the city 
gates at the earliest day practicable." And we began to raise 
funds at once. On the 12th of March last, nearly a year ago, 
we were able to buy this noble site, on which we are to-day 
permitted to lay our corner-stone, and on the 5th of November 
last we began actual work in making ready these foundations, 
the first stroke struck in manifestation of the newly-regained 
religious toleration in Eome. 






QQ ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

We are building now, not in any spirit of petty triumph 
over a fallen order of things, nor of wanton aggression upon, 
or loud-mouthed controversy with, any form of Christian faith, 
but we are building first to meet the absolute religious needs of 
our own people, and to set forth worthily the reasonable wor- 
ship that is dear to us at home, and not less that rightful liberty 
of conscience which is the first and most sacred of human 
rights, and without which no government, however wisely 
framed, can ever hope to stand. 

I have a word to say in regard to the appeal I made to the 
congregation last Sunday morning, that the whole purchase of 
this land might be met by contributions made here in Eome, 
without touching for this purpose the moneys given in the 
United States for the building proper. The sum asked for was 
nearly 30,000 lire. I am happy to be able to say here that I 
have received in the past six days not only the sum asked, but 
nearly 10,000 lire more, and I wish to make my warmest ac- 
knowledgment to the generous friends who have given their 
help in this timely way, so that we can offer this land to-day 
to our Lord as His freehold, without shadow of obligation or 
incumbrance. 1 And in this connection I wish to recur to the 
gift of pictures and statuary made nearly two years since by 
artist friends of our Church in this city for the benefit of the 
building-fund. These works were taken to America for sale, 
but, on account of the great fires at Chicago and Boston, we 
have not yet been able to realize from them what we had 

1 This end was reached chiefly through the great liberality of the 
late Mrs. A. E. Schermerhorn, who, with her son, Mr. F. Augustus 
Schermerhorn, contributed the sum asked for, to make up the pay- 
ment upon the ground. 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 67 

hoped, Nevertheless, the contributions, given at the time they 
were, have been of the greatest help to us, and I wish now to 
assure the generous givers that, without the encouragement of 
this practical pledge of interest upon the part of the residents 
here in Rome, we should never have been able to push this 
work forward as successfully as it has gone. 

One further acknowledgment I wish to make to-day. This 
block of freestone, which will be placed in this corner, at the 
floor-line, as the visible memorial of the deposits made in the 
foundation to-day, was cut from the native rock of the Key- 
stone State, and sent out by true friends of our work for this 
use ; and I make mention to-day with love and just pride of my 
old parish of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and re- 
turn our warm thanks to the rector and people of the same for 
this remembrance of theirs, and the substantial money-gift with 
which it was accompanied. May the association of those names 
with our beginning have its fair omen for our future ! May this 
house indeed be made a "House of Bread" to many hungry, 
fainting souls, and its spirit be always one of peace and good- 
will to all men ! 

Finally, my brethren, I must give utterance to the pleasure 
with which we welcome the large representation of both clergy 
and laity of the mother Church of England and of the Church 
of Ireland that is with us in this service to-day, and to the 
deep gratification we especially feel at the presence of the 
Right Rev. Father in God who is here to give his blessing 
upon us and our work. To him, and to our brethren of the 
clergy and laity, I return from the heart our acknowledgments 
and thanks for their interest and sympathy, speaking not only 
for the congregation of this Church of St. Paul, in Rome, but 



68 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

also of the Bishop in charge for whom it is my high part to act 
to-day, and, I am sure, of the whole American Church. 

Address of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of 
Derry (Ireland): 

I have been asked to say a few words on a very memorable 
occasion, the laying of the first stone of the first church of the 
reformed Faith within the walls of the city which the admira- 
tion of ages has hailed as the Eternal City. It is an enterprise 
worthy of the young and vigorous people whose flag is always 
to be seen upon the foremost wave of the highest tide of human 
progress. We assemble to lay the foundation-stone of this 
Church of St. Paul upon the day which is marked in the 
Calendar of the Catholic Church as the Feast of the Conver- 
sion of St. Paul. It is as the great old Greek writer said, 
"one of the poems of which chance is the creator," or as 
we should more reverently own, it is a happy and providential 
coincidence which connects this church with St. Paul's day 
and name. 

It is so, first, as regards Rome itself. For St. Paul is associ- 
ated with Rome by no subtile and remote deduction from his- 
torical premises. In the present audience, in this city, which is 
as truly the home of History as Greece even was of Poetry, I can- 
not doubt that there are some of those Prophets of the past, " On 
whose spirits rest past things revealed like future." Such men 
have gazed into the darkness of antiquity, aided, as a great his- 
torian has said, "by the triple torch of the study of places, of 
monuments, and of manners," until the crowded present has 
faded away, and they have been able to reconstruct the august 
and passionless lineaments of the past. 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 69 

If such a man stood in my place, he could doubtless bring 
before you the ancient city as it appeared to the converted 
Pharisee, in the days when it extended far beyond its present 
limits. He could represent the Basilica to you, as it was when 
Paul stood there before Nero and his accusers. He could pict- 
ure to you the sights upon the road to Ostia, where the great 
Apostle went forth for the last time, under the blue Italian sky, 
to die by the headsman's stroke. Yet, after all, what historical 
knowledge or literary skill could add to the emphasis with 
which these simple words of the inspired narrative must come 
home to us this morning upon this spot ? " And when they had 
appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging ; 
to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God ; per- 
suading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, 
and out of the Prophets, from morning till evening. And Paul 
dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all 
that came iu unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and 
teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ 
with all confidence, no man forbidding him." 

Is it mere fancy to find a second coincidence for our work of 
this day, in a special association of St. Paul with our Anglo-Saxon 
Christianity ? My friends, whatever faults or deficiencies may 
be alleged against our branch of the Church, none assuredly can 
accuse her of want of reverence for Holy Scripture, or of at- 
tempting to hide the Sacred Volume. With us English-speak- 
ing men and women the Bible is popular. In speaking of its 
popularity I am haunted by echoes of the eloquent voice of a 
great American writer, whom I am sorry to be unable to rec- 
ognize as fully Christian. The English Bible is carried by the 
sailor over the sea. It is packed in the soldier's knapsack, and 
sent home with his sword and sash, when his fights are over 



70 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

and his rest is won. The sweetest prayers that float upward to 
our cathedral-roof are in its storied speech. It is a bond be- 
tween our severed communions, so that those who have not 
eyes to see the glory upon the Church's battlements, have ears 
to hear the beauty of the words that come through her opened 
doors. The dates of the chronicle of Home, the day when a 
man is born into the world, when another spirit passes forth 
into the land unseen, are written within its covers. Its leaves 
are turned by horny hands, and blistered with penitential tears. 
When our English-speaking maidens go forth upon their mar- 
riage morning, they carry it with them as their most sacred 
gift. When men draw near to death, it brings before their 
closing eyes the outlines of the Delectable Mountains, and fills 
their ears with the murmurs of the Kiver of Life. And the 
Book is worthy of our reverence. Our faith is firm that what- 
ever record leaps to light shall never work it shame. Other 
books have passed away. But of this Book the silver cord is not 
loosed, nor the golden bowl broken. Never shall the mourners 
who mourn over a dead creed go through the streets and com- 
plain that it is carried to the long home where books are buried, 
which have spoken their last word to the heart and intellect of 
humanity. 

In that book how large a share is occupied by St. Paul's 
Epistles ! Whether or no the marble form, sculptured by Ca- 
nova in the crypt of St. Peter's, kneels in unceasing venera- 
tion before genuine relics of St. Paul, said to be mingled 
with those of St. Peter, our Church, my American and Eng- 
lish brethren, seems to me to do him a far higher and truer 
honor. Are not his words, in a tongue which our people can 
understand, read from every altar? Do they not lie upon 
every desk? Are they not interpreted from every pulpit? 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 71 

Those marvelous Epistles ! If we cannot speak of the Apostle 
as 

' Scattering from the pictured urn 

Thoughts that breathe and words that burn," 

yet he has the truer spell of writing sentences whose words 
have been said " to have hands and feel about our hearts." 

Think of those passages, alternately swelling like the trum- 
pet-blast or faltering into tears ; sweeping on with a majestic 
amplitude until, as one has exclaimed, the very rules of speech 
seem shipwrecked in the whirl and tumult, or sinking into a 
quiet calm. How full he is of subtile pathos and courteous 
considerateness ! How much do we owe to those great sus- 
tained arguments which are drawn, as Chrysostom said, " like a 
wall of adamant round the universal Church," to those com- 
fortable words heard at every altar, at which our English Eu- 
charistic rite is celebrated, " This is a faithful saying, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." How many of 
our dear ones in hours of mortal anguish have heard, with 
happy tears trickling down between their wasted fingers, those 
other words " Being justified by faith we have peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ ! " All this has passed into 
our language, has moulded our religious thoughts, and has 
given our people their primary religious ideas. I think, then, 
that I was justified in saying that there is a special fitness in 
beginning this Church of St. Paul in Eome upon the feast of 
his conversion. Brethren, we raise it in no bitter, offensive, 
sectarian, contentious spirit. It is for men and women of our 
faith and tongue. It is a badge of concord between two great 
branches of the Church, the American and English Episcopal 
Churches. It is the fruit of liberty. It is the symbol of tol- 
eration. It is the altar of a creed and of a Church which 
- 4 



72 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

rejects in Christianity nothing that is truly primitive, and in 
science nothing that is truly established ; which reverently 
retains Christ's word in its purity and Christ's sacraments in 
their integrity. Who can tell how its very erection here may 
be blessed in bringing about the fulfillment of that portion of 
our High-Priest's Prayer, which promises His Church outward 
as well as inward unity, " that they all may be one ; as Thou, 
Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in 
Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." 

This ceremony made a great impression in Rome. 
It was a pity that the weather prevented a larger at- 
tendance. Rain fell so heavily during the whole morn- 
ing that most of our own people even thought the service 
must be postponed. For a time I was in doubt myself, 
but the advice of the Lord Bishop of Derry was to go 
forward. Happily, as the hour drew on the rain ceased, 
and at the moment of the laying of the stone the sun 
shone out clear and full upon our act. The Italian 
builders (all Roman Catholics themselves) took this as 
an auspicious omen or something more, saying to me : 
" Signore, had the sun shone out so on one of our cere- 
monies, the Holy Father and all our priests would have 
loudly proclaimed it as a miracle and a promise of the 
Divine favor ; and, if it means that for them, it must 
mean the same for you too." 

As the service went on the attendance largely in- 
creased, every one of course who passed on the streets 
stopping to see a sight so extraordinary for Rome. In- 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STOXE. 73 

deed, for a part of the time we had as spectators the 
nuns from a neighboring convent, who crowded to their 
windows with excited interest, until they were all called 
abruptly away by some superior authority within. 

But though the attendance at the ceremony was not 
so large as was to be desired, the newspapers gave the 
act wide publicity. I suppose it was noticed in one 
way or other in almost every journal of Italy, almost 
always respectfully, and generally in a very friendly 
spirit. But it was a great novelty to the reporters, who 
in several instances attempted to describe the service at 
length. The clerical dress, especially the bishop's, was 
noted with great minuteness, even the primitive shape 
of our stole as distinguished from the later Roman 
shape. The hymn " Before Jehovah's awful throne " 
made a deep impression, and the fact that all the clergy 
and people should have joined in it " with earnestness 
and sincere conviction." The reverent bearing of the 
clergy was a matter of special remark ; but this was no 
wonder in Rome, where the behavior of even the cathe- 
dral clergy in the choirs of the great Basilica is often 
scandalously inattentive and irreverent. That the 
bishop's address should not have been in the nature of 
a violent attack upon the Roman religion seemed to be 
equally a matter of surprise. On all sides, however, 
was the pronouncement that the ceremony was simple, 
but wanting in neither dignity nor beauty. 

The placing in the corner-stone of a brick from In- 



74 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

dependence Hall, Philadelphia, had a deep significance 
for the Italian press. One of the leading journals of 
Rome ended its mention of this with these words : " One 
of the principal articles of the Act of Independence 
was the liberty for every man to worship God after his 
own way — a liberty which Catholicism (Roman) violates 
continually." 

I shall not tire my readers with the detailed story 
of the anxious, weary years that followed — the win- 
ters spent in shaping, directing, and superintending 
personally the work of the building in Rome ; the sum- 
mers in the yet more wearing labor of raising money at 
home with which to keep the works in progress. 1 By a 
great misfortune, we were committed at the beginning 
of our work to a general contract, which made no pro- 
vision for stopping the work at our option. "We had, 
therefore, to go on, under the penalty of exposing our- 
selves to vexatious claims for damages, which would 
have led to endless difficulties. The nature of the con- 
tract itself too was such that at almost every step of 
our work differences arose with the builders, which had 
to be contested with the greatest firmness and patience. 
The persistence of the Italian character is very great ; 
it yields for the moment, but only to spring back to its 
first position the moment the pressure upon it is taken 

1 The rector visited America seven times for this object as a volun- 
tary service. 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 75 

off. And of course, between parties who had no prac- 
tical knowledge of one another's habits of business, 
misunderstandings were very readily started. The 
anginal contract, too, had been prepared with the great- 
est care upon the part of the Building Committee. The 
preparation of it had been intrusted to native hands, 
which it was thought were rrwDst competent and trust- 
worthy. It was referred before signing to the lawyer at 
that time acting for the church, an Italian senator, who 
stands among the very first counsel in the kingdom, who, 
whether from indifference to the interests of a foreign 
Church, or ignorance of what we wanted, allowed us to 
conclude a contract which really bound us almost hand 
and foot, and left room for innumerable controversies. 
Contracts were never made in Rome under the old sys- 
tem for a fixed sum, but a builder undertook to do work 
whose general character and amount were loosely deter- 
mined, at a percentage on or off a very full but some- 
what complicated tariff of prices for all kinds of labor, 
established by the Government for use in its public 
works. This tariffa covered some hundreds of pages, 
and entered into the smallest details. Accounts were 
made out under it which entered into the most insignifi- 
cant minutiae. They were made, of course, upon careful 
measurements of all the work done, which were verified 
by a surveyor or misuratore for each party, or by one 
chosen by the common accord of both parties. These 
accounts involve, of course, a wasteful amount of labor, 



76 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

and are very cumbersome. I think those of the church 
count over twelve hundred foolscap pages ; but the 
system has the merit of great exactness as long as the 
work is confined to materials or labors that are clearlv 
specified in the printed tariffa y but, the moment you 
come to any work not specified in the tariff, the way is 
opened for extortionate charges and endless bargaining. 
"When I say that no builder in Rome had ever construct- 
ed a pointed arch or had the least knowledge of English 
forms or methods of workmanship, it will be understood 
that our work was nearly of a kind not prescribed in the 
tariffa. And so at every step arose new difficulties, and 
the necessity of a special adjustment of prices. There was 
not a day during our whole work in which some question 
of this kind was not in discussion between the commit- 
tee and the builders. Neither was it possible at any 
time during the work to tell what the total cost of the 
building would be, or to close the accounts up to a fixed 
date. I am glad to be able to say, however, that the 
loss to us under this unfortunate contract was one 
rather of time and patience than of money. The build- 
ing as finished has been put up at a cost * which is con- 
sidered low, even by Roman architects, and the profit of 
the contractors was one which did not more than fairly 
repay them for their time and trouble. It was consider- 
ably lower, indeed, than what is usual in this country 
under our system of contracts for a fixed sum. 
1 About $100,000 gold, exclusive of memorials. 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 7? 

The total ignorance of the Roman mechanics of 
Gothic building, or of English methods of work, re- 
quired of me a constant personal supervision of the 
works, which consumed as much time, though not as 
much patience, as the regulating of the accounts. The 
special charge of the construction was in the hands of a 
Swiss architect of high character and great energy — the 
Cavaliere Henri Kleffler — but as all the plans of the 
architect, Mr. Street, were in English, they required not 
only a first interpretation at the hands of the Building 
Committee, but a constant watchfulness as the work 
progressed, to see that that interpretation had been 
rightly understood. 

When it came to dealing with the builders them- 
selves, the greatest watchfulness was required to main- 
tain the solidity and reality that we wished to insist 
upon throughout the work. The modern Roman scarce- 
ly understands the idea. As builders, they had done no 
new work of any account for a long time before the new 
Government came in. They simply patched up the work 
of former generations, and very cunning they are in this 
line. But the sense of real construction, in stone at 
least, has almost been lost. But, worse than this, they 
have not only lost the care for reality in construction — 
they have actually acquired a morbid love for imitation, 
or rather for making something seem to be something 
different from what it is. This has the merit, in their 
eyes, of being a work of art, and of standing, in this way, 



78 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

in a higher rank than simply real work. Any workman, 
the idea was, could do real work ; but to cover a stone- 
wall with cement, and imitate brickwork upon it, or turn 
a brick-wall, by the same means, into an apparent stone- 
wall, this required an artist / and this disposition had 
to be combated at every step in the first stages of our 
work. Before it was finished, however, the workmen 
had, I think, thoroughly acquired the sense of reality as 
an essential element in good architecture, and became 
very proud of this feature in the building, and magnifi- 
cently ready to launch into any extravagance in order to 
maintain it. 

Arduous, however, as was the work involved in the 
care of the construction at Rome, it was infinitely less 
trying, to both health and spirits, than that of raising 
money to continue the work in progress. We were 
often at our wits' end for want of funds, and, to continue 
the work at all, it became necessary, again and again, to 
assume personally heavy financial liabilities. This part 
of the work, too, was made very much more difficult than 
it otherwise would have been, by the repeated heavy 
disasters which fell upon different parts of the country, 
and finally by the financial panic which occurred during 
its progress. Moreover, it was impossible for me to be 
away from Rome for any great length of time, or at all 
in the winter season, when alone the members of the 
city congregations could be reached in their several 
churches. 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE. 79 

In this labor of collecting funds — of which I may say 
here a very considerable amount was contributed by the 
liberality of persons not members of our Church — I was 
most happy in finding many warm friends and helpers, 
who, either by their large gifts or personal labors and 
encouragement, greatly lightened its burden ; and in 
this connection, besides those elsewhere named, I wish 
especially to make my own acknowledgments, and those 
of the committee, to the Right Rev. William Bacon 
Stevens, Bishop of Pennsylvania ; Mr. William Scott, of 
New York, and Mr. Henry E. Pierrepont, of Brooklyn, 
who opened their houses for meetings in behalf of the 
church ; to Mrs. C. L. Spencer, of New York, whose un- 
failing sympathy in the work was an ever-fresh encour- 
agement, and whose repeated gifts more than once saved 
us from coming to a stand-still ; to the present Bishop 
of Massachusetts (the Right Rev. B. H. Paddock, D. D.), 
then the rector of Grace Church, Brooklyn ; the Bishop 
of Central New York ; and to the following gentlemen, 
who, in their respective cities, acted at different times as 
sub-committees, and rendered efficient assistance in the 
raising of funds: Messrs. Frederic G. Foster, J. Pier- 
pont Morgan, William T. Blodgett, James W. Beekman, 
Howard Potter, and Theodore Roosevelt, of New York ; 
Mr. John Welsh, of Philadelphia ; and Governor A. H. 
Rice, and Mr. A. J. C. Sowdon, of Boston. With their 
help, and that of the other gentlemen named in the first 
circular, a sum of about $100,000, gold, has been raised 



80 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

at a very trifling expense. I think the expenses of col- 
lection have come, in all, to not over one and a half per 
cent, on the money collected. This arose, of course, 
from the fact that those working for this purpose nearly 
always bore their own expenses arising from the work. 

I must be allowed, also, here to make a special ac- 
knowledgment to Mr. George Edmund Street, the archi- 
tect, who most liberally gave up to the church much that 
he might strictly have claimed in the way of expenses 
and professional remuneration, and who also gave a most 
patient attention to the many questions touching often 
only petty details, which the inexperience of the Roman 
builders obliged us constantly to trouble him with. Mr. 
Street visited Rome three times in connection with the 
building of the church. 

The funds employed for the church construction were 
disbursed at Rome, under the direction of a finance com- 
mittee, consisting of the rector and the senior warden, 
Mr. William H. Herriman, and through the house of 
Messrs. Spada, Flamini & Co., bankers, of Rome, to 
whom the best thanks of the committee are due, for 
their unfailing courtesy and confidence, and for much 
wise counsel during the troublesome progress of the 
building. 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 81 



IV. 

CONSECRATION OP THE CHURCH WITHIN THE WALLS. 

The walls of the church were quite finished in July, 
1875, and it seemed safe to take steps for the con- 
secration of the church on the Feast of the Conversion 
of St. Paul, January 25, 1876, which was the third anni- 
versary of the laying of the corner-stone. There re- 
mained, it is true, a very heayy work to be done on the 
roof and the floor, but this could have been readily done 
had we had the funds to push the work on as fast as we 
wished. The money yet needed, however, came in so 
slowly in answer to my last urgent appeal, that the 
Building Committee were forced, in ordinary prudence, 
to let the contractors take their own time. The con- 
secration was therefore thrown forward two months to 
the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th. There 
remained, still, always the same hampering want of 
funds, delaying the progress of the work until finally it 
seemed almost impossible to get the church into toler- 
able order, even for the later date of consecration. I 
would gladly then have postponed this ceremony to 
the next winter, even at the risk of having it fall out- 
side of the Centennial year, but under the circum- 



82 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

stances it seemed to be impossible. The bishop in 
charge had already come out for this purpose ; many in- 
vited guests, including bishops of the English, Scotch, 
and Irish Churches, had made their arrangements to be 
present ; and numbers of our own people had come to 
Rome, or were on their way there, for the ceremony. 
Above all, the notice of it having gone abroad, and 
public expectation in Rome being at a high pitch in 
regard to it, it would have involved almost a moral 
defeat to have postponed the service. There was, in- 
deed, nothing to do but to go forward. Nor, for the 
church's sake, do I regret it now, although it involved 
an amount of anxiety and labor such as I have never 
experienced at any other time in my life, and left me 
exhausted with a weariness which the whole summer 
was not enough to recover from. 

To get the church into a tolerable state of fitness 
for the consecration, it was necessary to strain every 
nerve ; and finally I had to take the personal direction of 
the men engaged on the different departments of work, 
visit the different workshops twice a day, lay aside 
all the work that was not absolutely essential, concen- 
trate all available force on that which was, until, by 
working with relays of workmen by night as well as 
day, the church was made fairly ready for the solemn 
service of its consecration. But few who were present 
at that service, however, realized the tremendous press- 
ure under which the work was accomplished, or that 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHUKCH. 83 

the workmen ended their labors only at the moment 
when the doors were opened for the congregation to 
enter. I mention this only as an apology for all that 
was hurried or wanting in the consecration ceremony 
or its arrangements. Carrying, as I was, these labors, 
in addition to the ordinary cares of my charge and the 
pressure of an enormous correspondence — under special 
personal cares and harassments also at the time — it was 
utterly impossible for me to give that personal over- 
sight to many details of the occasion which I otherwise 
would have done, or show that attention to the many 
guests and friends who had gathered to the ceremony, 
which my own inclinations prompted and their good- 
will deserved. 

The following was the announcement of services 
upon entering the new church: 

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, ROME, 

VIA NAZIONALE, CORNER OF VIA NAPOLI. 



Feast of the Annunciation, Satukday, Maech 25, 1876. 

Service of Consecration, at 11 a.m., the Right Eev. A. K 

Littlejolm, D. D., Bishop of Long Island, officiating. 



Sunday, Maech 26th. 

SEEVIOE AT 8 AND 11 A. M., AND 4 P. M. 



84 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. . 

During the week there will be service daily at 11 a. m. with 
special preachers as follows : 

Sunday — The Et. Kev. the Lord Bishop of Peterborough. 

Monday — The Kt. Kev. the Lord Bishop of Gibraltar. 

Tuesday — The Kev. Lord Plunket. 

Wednesday — The Kev. Dr. Henry 0. Potter. 

Thuesday — (Confirmation) The Kt. Kev. Dr. Hare, Bishop of 

Niobrara. 
Feiday— The Rev. Stopford Brooke. 
Satueday — Ordination. 

Following which there will le services regularly on Sundays 
at 8 and 11 a. m. and 4 p. m. and daily on other days during 
Lent at 11 a. m. 

Rev. R. J. Nevin, Rector. 
Via della Mercede, N. 39, 2» p. 

These services were fully carried out. 

The Very Rev. the Dean of Chester (Dr. Howson) 
had accepted the appointment to preach on the Friday 
in the octave, but was prevented from coming to Rome 
by an unexpected pressure of duty at his cathedral. 
The Rev. Stopford Brooke, then in Rome on account of 
his health, most kindly consented to fill the place thus 
left vacant. 

It was hoped, too, that the Most Rev. the Primus of 
Scotland, Dr. Robert Eden, Bishop of Moray and Ross, 
would have preached at the ordination, and closed thus 
most fittingly the special services of the occasion ; but, 
most unfortunately, he was prostrated with sickness, 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 85 

after having started for Rome, and was thus prevented 
from being present at the consecration at all. This was 
a very great disappointment, as, apart from the personal 
regret felt at the absence of a prelate who had taken 
great interest in our work, and written me many kind 
words of encouragement during the latter steps of its 
progress, it cut off our much-desired representation of 
the Scotch episcopate in general, and also of two of 
those sees which had united in giving consecration to 
the first bishop of the Church in America. 

The rector of the church acted, therefore, as preacher 
at the ordination service. 

The sun rose clear on the day of the consecration, 
fulfilling its promise at the moment of the corner-stone- 
laying. A large congregation gathered as soon as the 
doors were opened, and in the street many people were 
assembled to see what they could of so new a service in 
Rome, and expecting, perhaps, that some violent demon- 
stration might be made against us by the ultra-Papal 
party, who have a way of appealing to mud and stones 
and knives, when better reasons fail them. 

It had been necessary to limit the entrance into the 
church by the issue of tickets, which were placed in the 
hands of the bankers and vestrymen, and distributed 
freely to all who asked for them. This was not done 
from any fear of disturbance within the church, but 
simply to secure for our people place in the edifice, 
which would otherwise have been filled, long before 



86 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

the service began, with a large crowd of curious Romans. 
Some special invitations were also issued to persons 
whose official rank seemed to demand such a courtesy 
upon our part, and to such foreigners as it was under- 
stood desired to be present ; but these invitations 
simply gave entrance to the church in the same way 
that the ordinary tickets did. In this way every Ameri- 
can and Englishman in Rome who cared to be present 
was secured a place at the service, and, while the idle 
crowd were kept out, no Roman, who felt interest 
in the matter, had any difficulty in getting admission. 
As it was, there was a large Italian representation pres- 
ent at the service, including members of the municipal 
and national governments, a number of deputies, and 
several members of the Roman aristocracy. Many of 
these could speak English, and were able thus to form 
from the service a very fair conception of the nature of 
our worship. 

The clergy formed for the procession to the church- 
door at the neighboring Hotel Quirinale, kindly put at 
our disposal by its Swiss proprietor, Mr. Bauer, and deco- 
rated for the day with the flags of the several nations 
represented. 

There were present in robes, and taking places in the 
choir, the following clergy : 

Of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States of America, besides the rector, the Rev. R. J. 
Nevin, D. D., Rev. C. Ellis Stevens, deacon ; Rev. Tbad- 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 87 

deus A. Snively, priest ; Rev. Henry F. Hartman, priest ; 
Rev. Arthur Mason, priest; Rev. Samuel M. Akerly, 
priest; Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D., priest ; Right Rev. 
William Hobart Hare, D. D., Bishop of Niobrara ; Right 
Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D. D., Bishop of Long Island. 

Of the Church of England: The Rev. T. Hewitt, 

priest ; Rev. Bingham, priest ; Rev. J. Dixon, priest ; 

Rev. Hulme, priest; Rev. J. Barnwell, priest; Rev. 

Howes, priest ; Rev. H. C. Sanderson, priest ; Rev. 

J. W. Pickance, priest ; Rev. H. 0. Wass, priest ; Right 
Rev. the Lord Bishop of Gibraltar ; Right Rev. the Lord 
Bishop of Peterborough. 

Of the Church of Ireland : The Rev. Somerset B. 
Burtchael, priest; Rev. R. L. McClintock; Rev. Lord 
Plunket ; Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Down and 
Connor. 

There were present, also, one or two English clergy- 
men whose names have escaped me, and also (though 
not in surplices) the Rev. William P. Lewis, D. D. 
(American), and the Rev. Stopford Brooke (English). 

The following-named gentlemen constituted the 
wardens and vestrymen at the time of the consecration : 
William H. Herriman, William Scott, wardens ; William 
Stanley Haseltine, Hickson W. Field, Edward D. Boit, 
Elihu Vedder, John A. King, George P. Clapp, J. S. 
Dumaresq, F. Crowninshield, D. Maitland Armstrong, 
F. Augustus Schermerhorn, A. J, C. Sowdon, vestry- 
men. 



88 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

The procession, headed by Dr. E. G. Monk and Messrs. 
Newton and Howard Ticknor, robed as choristers, and 
closed by the Bishop of Long Island (bishop in charge), 
passed silently down the Yia Nazionale through a large 
but perfectly respectful crowd, and were received at the 
doors of the church by the wardens and vestrymen, 
where the request for consecration was read by William 
Scott, Esq. 

The main doors of the church were then for the first 
time thrown open, and the bishops and clergy, accord- 
ing to the rubrics of our service for the consecration of 
a church, proceeded up the aisle, singing alternately 
Psalm xxiv. in unison. The clergy having taken their 
places in the choir-stalls, and the bishops gone within 
the rails, the consecration-service was accomplished by 
the Bishop of Long Island, after the simple but im- 
pressive form provided in our office. The bishop in 
charge, with the Rev. H. C. Potter, D. D., and the Rev. 
Lord Plunket, as attending presbyters, took his place 
in the beautiful Episcopal chair, provided chiefly by 
funds given for* this special purpose from the churches 
whence our Episcopal succession is derived. The in- 
strument of donation was presented by the wardens, 
and the sentence of consecration read by the Rev. H. C. 
Potter, D. D. After the act of consecration had been 
accomplished, the proper service for the day was read, 
and the Holy Communion celebrated, the clergy taking 
part, as follows : 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 89 

In the Moening Peayeb. 

Sentences and Absolution The Rector. 

First Lesson Rev. H. 0. Potter, D. D. 

Second Lesson Eev. Lord Plunket. 

Prayers Rev. Somerset B. Burtchael. 



In the Celebeation of the Holt Communion. 

The Commandments. . .The Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. 

" Epistle. . .The Rev. Hy. Wass (English Chaplain at Rome). 

" Gospel The Lord Bishop of Peterborough. 

" Sermon The Bishop of Long Island. 

" Offertory The Bishop of Niobrara. 

" Consecration The Bishop of Long Island. 

** Post-Communion Prayer . . . The Lord Bishop of Gibraltar. 

" Blessing The Bishop of Long Island. 

The rector, the Rev. Henry Wass, the Rev. Arthur 
Mason, and the Rev. Thaddeus A. Snively, assisted the 
bishop in delivering the communion. 

The Venite was sung to Tallis in F. 

Psalm lxxxiv Russell in F. 

" cxxii E. G. Monk in B|,. 

" cxxxii Rimbault in F. 

Te Deum Boyce in D, and Gilbert in G. 

Benedictus Foster in D. 

The Introit Hymn 278, from Tucker's Hymnal. 



90 ST. PAULS WITHIN THE WALLS. 

In the Communion Service. 

The Kyrie, Gloria Tibi, and Sanctus, were Tuckerman in 0. 

The Hymn before Sermon Hymn 405, The Hymnal. 

The Anthem after Sermon, "Praise the Lord, my soul," 

By Sir J. Goss. 
The Gloria in Excelsis The Hymnal. 1 

I cannot allow the notice of this part of the service 
to pass without making my sincere acknowledgments 
to the gentlemen and ladies, both English and Ameri- 
can, who very kindly gave their services in 'singing, and 
went patiently through the frequent and tedious re- 
hearsals which were necessary in the training of an 
amateur choir. The results of their labors, however, I 
think must have satisfied them that the time thus given 
was in no way lost. And more especially here do I 
desire to put on permanent record the thanks of the 
congregation and my own thanks to Dr. S. P. Tuckerman, 
of Boston, Massachusetts, and Dr. E. G. Monk, of York 
Minster, England, the two gentlemen who contributed 
most largely to the success of the music given on this 
occasion. Dr. Tuckerman had at first expected himself 
to take charge of the music on this occasion, but, being 
prevented by illness in his family from reaching Rome, 

1 In this connection I desire to acknowledge the gift to the church 
for this occasion of a dozen copies of the latest edition of "The 
Hymnal, with Tunes Old and New," from the publishers, Messrs. F. J. 
Huntington & Co., of New York. 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 91 

he not only made the arrangement with his friend Dr. 
Monk to fill his place, but furnished at his own cost all 
the sheet-music required for the occasion, and a large 
supply of canticles and full services for future use. It 
was desired to use a complete service of Dr. Tucker- 
man's own composition at the consecration, but the want 
of an organ, and of voices thoroughly trained to choral 
singing, forced us reluctantly to fall back on the sim- 
plest possible music for the first part of the service. 

It is impossible for me to speak too highly of the 
service rendered to the church by Dr. Monk's labors on 
this occasion. Though it was his first visit to Rome, for 
the two months previous to the consecration he gave his 
time always first to perfecting the arrangements for the 
musical part of the service, and finally succeeded in get- 
ting together a large volunteer choir, and by incessant 
rehearsals in drilling them into such a state of efficiency 
that, in spite of the want of an organ, and of all other 
defects, the music was worthy of the occasion, and drew 
out warm praise from the Roman press for its " admira- 
ble harmony and precision." Dr. Monk himself presided 
at one of Mason and Hamlin's cabinet-organs — some- 
thing far enough removed from the organ at York Min- 
ster, but which still certainly did wonders on that occa- 
sion. 

The whole service was accomplished without any in- 
terruption or act of discourtesy, nor did anything of 
the kind occur during the entirely open services of the 



92 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

week following. I learned afterward that the Govern- 
ment had taken some precautions to check promptly any 
demonstration that might have been attempted against 
us ; but on the part of the Roman people we experienced 
only a curiosity which, if sometimes somewhat eager, 
was yet always perfectly respectful. 

The Italian press reported the consecration of the 
church throughout the kingdom, and the act was consid- 
ered important enough to call out leading articles in 
nearly all the prominent papers, both Papal and Liberal. 
The laudatory articles in the Liberal press goaded the 
Papal organs up to very lengthy and venomous attacks, 
not so much upon the particular church in Rome as 
against the general body that we represented. The 
Osservatore JRomano, the special mouth-piece of the 
Vatican and of the Pope, devoted a whole page to a 
Rome-manufactured history of the English Reformation, 
from which I give a few quotations, as showing the light 
in which the Church of England is held at the Vatican, 
and the exactness of information in that school of writ- 
ers. I commend it to those who dream of a possible 
reconciliation of the Anglican Church to the Roman 
communion : 

"Then came the cruel Elizabeth, the famous Virgin, the 
mother of a number of bastards, who, for the Catholic symbol 
of Henry, substituted Calvinism, planting it in England with 
fire and with sword. She abolished nearly all the sacraments, 
prohibited the practice of the ancient Catholic worship under 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 93 

atrocious penalties, and through her deadly laws filled England 
with blood and mourning. After Elizabeth, the Anglican, like 
all other Protestant sects, changed in a thousand ways until, in 
our days, the question has arisen as to whether baptism be 
necessary, and it has been decided that nothing positive can be 
established on the subject. Anglicanism is nothing more than 
an infernal chaos of changes and contradictions." 

Describing, in its own way, the constitution of the 
American Church, it asks : 

" And is this the Constitution given by Christ to His Church ? 
Is it not rather a bad imitation of the revolutionary Constitu- 
tions ? And yet a Church constituted in this manner, without 
symbol, without sacraments, without rites properly so called, 
dares to call itself a Christian Church, to erect temples, and in 
the name of Christianity and of civilization to propagate its 
doctrines in the very metropolis of Christendom ! May God 
illuminate the blind, and may the Blessed Virgin, who has been 
so atrociously outraged on her most memorable festival, pardon 
them, instead of calling upon her Divine Son for 'vengeance ! ' " 

This is a fair sample of the Papal idea and style of 
controversy — scurrilous abuse of everything that does 
not bow down before the idol which the late Council set 
up in the Vatican. Of the articles in the Liberal press I 
shall quote only that of the Xibertd, one of the strongest 
daily papers in Rome. This article was referred to by 
Mr. Shakspere Wood, the correspondent of the London 
Times in Rome, as being— 



94 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

" a correct expression of the line of thought now dominant 
in the mind of nine-tenths of the thinking population of Rome 
and Italy — of those who, while sincere believers, not only in 
the fundamental but even of the more modern dogmas of the 
Roman Church excepting infallibility, are stigmatized by the 
Pope, by his surroundings, and by the Vatican organs, as out- 
side the pale of Catholicity, because they -do not accept the 
necessity for the temporal sovereignty of the head of the 
Church." 



The Libertd says, in its issue of March 27, 1876, ac- 
cording to Mr. Wood's translation : 

" The consecration of the new American Episcopal church 
is a fact of the highest possible importance, upon which it be- 
hooves the public to turn its attention. The church rises in 
one of the new quarters of the city, in standing witness to the 
new start of this city of Rome, which has already seen so many 
changes across the centuries. This church, so entirely different 
from the Catholic churches, and from those of every other 
religious body, is there to show that tolerance and respect for 
every form of religious belief are one of the foundation-stones of 
modern society. ' 

" But those who look upon this new temple as no more than 
an eloquent manifestation of religious tolerance will make a \ 
profound mistake ; it has a far deeper and far more important 
significance. 

"Putting on one side for the moment all purely religious 
opinions, and with the highest respect for all convictions, we 
cannot but think that this new Protestant temple, erected by 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 95 

the contributions of the faithful, and within which are no 
traces of vain pomp and luxury, will recall to the minds of 
many the idea of a religion far more simple than the Catholic, 
and far more robust. In other words, the Episcopal church, 
with its naked walls, and its crowd of reverent worshipers, 
will diffuse — possibly without knowing it, but none the less 
efficaciously — a desire, and perhaps a need, for some important 
change in the ancient and respected Catholic religion. 

"No one assuredly will accuse us of irreverence if we add 
that, if such a change should come about, it would be beneficial. 
From all Protestant Churches, two principles emanate more 
distinctly than all others : the right of individuals to private 
judgment, according to their consciences, of the doctrines the 
Church teaches ; and the participation of the laity in the gov- 
ernment of the Church itself. These two principles, funda- 
mental in the religious reform of the sixteenth century, could 
not then take root in Italy, because politics were opposed to 
them, and the repression of every innovation was vigorous and 
cruel. In our day, on the contrary, the road is open to them, 
and they can become freely diffused. "We do not think that the 
great mass of the people can for long resist their influence ; we 
are rather of opinion that with time, with the example of others, 
and through calm and impartial discussion, these two funda- 
mental ideas will be received with a good grace even by Cath- 
olic society itself. The clericals continually repeat that their 
Church is eternal, that no power can ever destroy it. In truth, 
these are manifest exaggerations, though for many respectable 
as being suggested by a sincere faith. Although apart from 
these exaggerations it may be asserted that the Catholic religion 
possesses sufficient vitality to insure its existence for a good 
number of centuries, yet movement and gradual transformation 
5 



96 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

are as essential conditions of life as immobility is a characteris- 
tic of death. Without, therefore, showing any want of respect, 
we may express the conviction that the Catholic religion will 
find the way to transform itself— in other words, to adapt itself 
— to the actual condition of human society. It is not desirable 
that the transformation should be effected in a hurry, or it will 
not be durable ; but that it should take place the Catholics 
themselves should more than any others desire, for in it will in 
all probability consist the future raison d'etre of Catholicism." 

The Illustrazione Italiana, published at Milan, and 
the chief illustrated paper of Italy, in its issue of April 
16, 1876, published a large view of the exterior of the 
church, and also a representation of the consecration 
service. These were accompanied by an article from 
the pen of Cesare Donati, from which I give a short 
extract, as showing the impression made upon the 
Italian mind by the church building. After describing 
the exterior as very pleasing, the writer goes on to say : 

" The interior, to judge by what it is now, of what it will be 
when finished in all its parts, has a better effect even than the 
exterior. The simplicity of the lines, the quiet light, the clean- 
liness, the perfect harmony of the whole, help greatly to self- 
recollection and meditation, in this place of peace and of love. 
Without being believers, without being fervent, it is enough 
for one to have a refined and well-regulated mind, to feel the 
power of a simplicity so ingenuous and pure, which stands in 
strong contrast not only with the pomp and unreality of other 
supremely earthly forms of worship, but seems a very oasis of 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 97 

the desert — a place of refuge for souls driven by the strong 
and unbridled passions of modern society." 

The church at the time of the consecration was far 
from finished in its interior, and lacked especially the 
most commanding and artistic feature of its exterior — 
the tower. This, however, had already been provided 
for by the gift of one person — Miss C. L. Wolfe, of 
New York — who took upon herself the whole cost of 
its construction, about seventeen thousand dollars — 
this in addition to a most generous gift to the build- 
ing-fund proper at the time of the consecration. In 
this way it came that, though funds were still badly 
needed for finishing the building and inclosing and 
draining the grounds, the committee were able to carry 
on the building of the tower without interruption, 
so that by the beginning of July the cross had been 
placed on top, and the American and Italian flags un- 
furled at its foot announced to Rome, on the Centen- 
nial anniversary of American Independence, that this 
our monument there to religious liberty was finished. 
I cannot sufficiently express my appreciation of Miss 
Wolfe's wise act, in assigning her gift to this special ob- 
ject — otherwise the tower might never have been raised, 
or have dragged along until its erection would have lost 
all its significance. Put up as it has been, it has made 
a great impression upon the city. It is preeminently 
the thing about the church which gives it a monumental 
character ; and among the people, jealously proud of the 



98 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

artistic reputation of their city, the giver is looked 
upon as a public benefactor. The Opinione, the largest 
paper in Rome, and unofficial government organ at the 
time, made the finishing of the tower the occasion for 
a three-column article of warm praise of the building as 
a " beautiful monument," for which Rome owes thanks 
to American zeal — and liberality. 

Another gift which has been very useful in the pub- 
lic impression made on the city is that of a chime of 
twenty-three bells, given by Mr. Thomas Messenger, of 
Brooklyn, New York. These bells, from the time-hon- 
ored foundery of Severin Yan-Aerschodt, of Louvain, 
Belgium, are of rare musical quality, and, when properly 
hung for carillon-ringing, will be a new feature in Rome, 
whose bells are anything but sweet and are always 
jangled sadly out of tune. They were not received at 
Rome until the begiuning of June last, and three of 
them, placed hurriedly in the tower for provisional ring- 
ing, were first sounded on the 3d of June, the anniver- 
sary of the Statuto, or founding of the present con- 
stitutional government in Italy. The same day, by a 
curious coincidence, was the feast of the Papal jubilee, 
the fiftieth anniversary of the episcopate of Pius IX., 
the culminating day of the pilgrimages which crowded 
Rome this past spring. 

The largest of these bells weighs three-quarters of 
a ton, and bears the legend, " Verbum Dei non est alii- 
gatum" Mr. Messenger has, I believe, already set up 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 99 

many bells in various parts of the Church at home. 
None, certainly, do him more credit, or have given out 
a truer, nobler, or more needed utterance of the Church 
than those which on the day of the Pope's jubilee 
sounded out to the people of Rome, and to pilgrims 
gathered there from every part of the inhabited world, 
the long-stifled voice of Rome's greatest martyr — Ver- 
bum Dei non" est alligatum — the Word of God is not 
bound. 

No American, habituated from childhood to the 
thought of religious liberty as a right as free to man 
as God's air and water, can possibly understand what 
this church on the Via Nazionale, dedicated to the great 
Apostle to the Gentiles, means to a- Roman mind. Se- 
verely pure and beautiful in its architecture, it has come 
to stand before the Roman (indeed the Italian) people as 
the material representation of all those principles of 
truth and freedom which flow from St. Paul's teaching. 
And it has come thus to be looked to as the very type 
and symbol of the struggle of Protestantism, in the best 
and widest sense of the word, against the Papacy. It is 
a matter of constant wonder and expectation in the 
minds of the people; of wonder that there is any form 
of Christianity real and vigorous enough to manifest it- 
self thus in the front of the Papacy, and the wide-spread 
infidelity that it has begotten; of expectation as to 
whether it will be able, and especially as to how it will be 
able, to maintain itself. 



100 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

On the one side it is a matter of constant promise 
and encouragement. A Roman prelate of high standing 
but reforming views told me he felt stronger every time 
he passed under its tower, and more than one priest in 
Rome feels so. 

On the other hand, it sadly demoralizes the confidence 
of those who have pinned their faith to the Papacv, and 
who have tried to hide from themselves the truth as 
to how greatly its power over the world is gone. It 
has always been a matter of great and superstitious 
self-confidence to the Roman clergy that, amid all the 
changes of centuries, the city of Rome has never been 
occupied by any form of Christian worship that did not 
recognize the Papal sovereignty. It was a place until 
six years ago where the wearied and discouraged soldiers 
of the Papacy might return and, ostrich-like, hide their 
heads and strengthen themselves in the imagination of an 
omnipotent Papacy. And 'the most of those who formed 
the ruling body known as the Curia comforted and 
strengthened themselves thus in a darkness from which 
they never looked out. " Roma locuta est" and then 
they imagined that there must be an end of it. They 
knew theoretically that there were persons in the world 
who did not hear and obey, but they knew it only theo- 
retically. They never realized it as a practical fact. 
They had no appreciation of how many such people there 
were, and of what manner of men they were. The tower 
built by Miss Wolfe preaches thus to the Vatican every 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHUECH. 101 

day a sermon such as it has never in all its history had 
before. No Pope save Pius IX. has ever seen, as Pope, 
the cross blazing above a place of Christian worship that 
did not own him as lord. The lesson is a very real one 
— this first lesson of his hierarchical power limited at its 
very head — of the living Christ burst forth from all his 
guards and seals. Now it may produce only a feeling of 
indignation and resentment ; but in the course of time it 
will tell, and help very really to shatter that supreme con- 
fidence in itself which has always been one of the strong- 
defenses of the Papacy. 

Those of us who have happened to be in Rome at 
this crisis in her history have, in building this church, 
done what we could to represent the Church worthily, 
and put her in a position whence her influence may 
be exerted commandingly for good upon the religious 
thinking of the rising Italian nation. As far as we have 
been able to go, every thing that has been done has 
been well done. We have built not for ourselves — most 
of those who began the work in Rome have already re- 
moved to other homes— but for the Church. It remains 
for the Church to decide how far the work done shall 
be utilized for wider work than the care only of our 
English-speaking people. Every Sunday many hun- 
dreds of the Italian people are drawn to the church, 
eagerly anxious to study our manner of worship. From 
many of these have come to me repeated requests for 
the opening of services in a language understood by the 



102 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

people ; and these ^requests have been forcibly urged on 
these grounds, that we alone, of the Churches of Western 
Christendom, claimed equally with the Roman to stand 
in the historic continuity of the Church, and to have pre- 
served the faith and practices of primitive Christianity 
better than the Roman Church ; that our liturgy offered 
a form of service in which the Italian people could real- 
ize in some degree their ideal of worship, and that thus 
we could do for them a work which none of the Prot- 
estant missions so far started in Rome could with any 
reason be expected to accomplish ; and it was further 
urged, that this work was to be looked on, not as a 
work of proselyting from the Roman Church, of draw- 
ing from another communion souls that might, perhaps, 
equally there, find salvation through the name of Jesus ; 
but that it was to be looked on rather as a giving of the 
word of life to the heathen, as the opening of a way for 
a return to the Christian Faith, of souls that had become 
wholly estranged from Christianity as a religion through 
the monstrous falsifications of it in the communion in 
which they or their fathers were brought up, and for 
whom there was no possible hope of recovery through 
the Roman Church. I cannot too strongly press this 
sad truth in regard to the Italian people — intellectually, 
I think, in many respects the noblest in native capacity, 
though not in education, of Europe — that a large pro- 
portion of the thinking classes have wholly lost their 
faith in Christianity, as the one divinely-revealed re- 



CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 103 

ligion of the world. This is not a partisan statement ; 
it is simply what the Pope himself has more than once in 
far stronger terms charged upon the Italian nation, for- 
getful of the retributive fact that he and his predeces- 
sors have had absolute control of the religious education 
of this people for more than a thousand years, and are 
before God responsible for the sad condition of their 
faith to-day. 

Have this people, from whose past we have received 
so much that is highest in our civilization, a less claim 
upon our Christian charity than a heathen people ? Is 
it a higher mission to gain new ground for Christ than 
to recover that which has been lost by the faithlessness 
of those to whose keeping it was intrusted ? Have we 
no duty toward the stray sheep of that house in Israel 
whose faith, once spoken of throughout the world, was 
the chief instrument in recovering our forefathers to 
Christianity, when the oversweeping bands of northern 
heathen had wellnigh put out the last embers of Chris- 
tian truth in our mother-land ? 

This is the question with which " St. Paul's within 
the Walls " confronts our bishops and Church at large 
to-day. I leave it to their wider and more experienced 
wisdom, with the sure confidence that, whatever we may 
do or leave undone in the future, the faith ancl labor 
that have reared, in the city where he died, this noble 
tribute from the American people to the memory of the 
great Apostle to whose teaching more than to any other 



104 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

human voice in history we owe, under God, the whole 
fabric of both our civil and religious liberties, have not 
been spent in vain. Even were it to be razed to its 
foundations to-morrow, a voice has gone out from it 
already whose echoes can never be laid — the same cry 
which, from the bonds and darkness of a Roman imperial 
prison, proclaimed from the mouth of Paul to all people 
and times the invincible, irrepressible power of his Mas- 
ter Jesus — " The Wokd of God is not bound." 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 105 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 

(Saturday, March 25lh.) 

SERMON PEEACHED AT CONSECEATION OF ST. PAUL'S 
CHUECH, EOME, BY THE EIGHT EEVEEEND A. N. LIT- 
TLE JOHN, D. D., LL. D., BISHOP OF LONG ISLAND, IN 
CHAEGE OF FOEEIGN CHUECHES. 

"To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: 
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus 
Christ." — Epistle to the Romans, chap, i., v. 7. 

It was in these words that the great Apostle to the 
Gentiles saluted the Christians of Rome at the begin- 
ning of his memorable letter written to them from 
Achaia, A. d. 58. They breathe the spirit of the 
Church's Head. They carry us up to the fountain of 
all grace and on to the perfected fruit of that grace — 
the peace of God which passeth all understanding. 
They were the glowing utterance of a heart intensely 
alive to that law of Christ's kingdom, which makes all 
who accept the faith of the Gospel members one of an- 
other, joint inheritors of the eternal promises, and par- 
takers together of the life of the one body and of the 
gifts of the one Spirit. They lift us at once into the 
higher realm of spiritual experience, where the mind of 



106 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

Christ dwells iD all souls that are truly His, however 
they may be separated by distinctions of ecclesiastical 
lineage, or by peculiarities of doctrinal confession, by 
diversities of race and language. Hence, we may regard 
this salutation, in which the heart of Paul made the pul- 
sations of its love felt among the believers of Rome 
more than eighteen centuries ago, as suitable to be used 
in every age by widely -sundered members of the body 
of Christ. 

But may I not claim that there is a special fitness in 
thus saluting all Christian dwellers in this ancient city 
at this time and on this occasion ? Whatever may be 
thought of the ecclesiastical system centred here, or of 
the means by which it has grown to its present shape, 
or of the influence which it wields over the peoples and 
civilizations under its sway, we know that many here 
and elsewhere accept its teaching and obey its author- 
ity, who are worthy to be called saints, and on whose 
lives and labors we rejoice to invoke the grace and peace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, it is 
equally our joy to find in this apostolic greeting the key- 
note to the services we this day celebrate, as well as of the 
offices and ministrations which will be performed in this 
sacred edifice through all coming time. Gathered here 
from a region far more remote than Achaia, and bearing 
with us many uses and traditions foreign to the reli- 
gious tone and habit of this land, we yet accept and 
repeat, in all the broad and glowing charity in which 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 107 

they were originally uttered, the words of the apostolic 
salutation ; recognizing in them, as we do, the voice of 
evangelic love which has risen through the ages all 
along from the various branches of the one body high 
above the strife of tongues and the clamors of heresy 
and schism. 

The occasion which has brought us together is so re- 
markable in every way that it cannot but excite inquiry 
and possibly provoke criticism. In anticipation of both, 
I desire to state frankly and clearly why we are here 
and what we purpose to do, leaving the results to Him 
who ruleth all things according to the counsels of His 
will. Be it known, then, that a branch of the one 
Catholic and Apostolic Church planted in the New 
World more than two centuries ago, more or less modi- 
fied by the national life with which it has mingled, and 
claiming to exemplify in their integrity the fundamental 
principles of the Church's primitive faith and order, has 
in the persons of some of its members and official rep- 
resentatives established itself here in this the oldest 
centre of wellnigh the oldest life in Europe ; and that 
to-day and by this service it solemnly consecrates to the 
worship and glory of the Triune God this sanctuary, 
within whose walls it will deliver through a duly-com- 
missioned ministry what it believes to be the true tes- 
timony concerning Christ and His body — the Church. 
Our civil right to do this is sufficiently explained and 
guaranteed by the religious liberty now so happily estab- 



108 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

lished in this realm. Our ecclesiastical right will, very 
naturally, be denied by all who desire to restore the once 
exclusive supremacy of the Roman obedience. But it 
rests upon grounds which cannot be shaken — grounds 
which justified a large part of the Church in the six- 
teenth century in driving from its borders universally 
admitted corruptions and usurpations ; in asserting the 
independence of national Churches of the Roman See ; 
and in accepting as inevitable the consequences of the 
great schism of the West — grounds, too, which have 
stripped the excommunications and anathemas of the 
Papacy of all validity or force in the eyes of reformed 
Christendom. These, too, I may add, are the grounds 
which oblige every pure branch of the Catholic Church 
to provide its members sojourning in countries domi- 
nated by the Roman supremacy with the ordinances of 
religion ; or, failing in this, to leave them to perish for 
lack of the bread of life. 

If the Roman obedience be not so apostate as to 
have forfeited all right whatever to undisturbed juris- 
diction over the souls of men, it has, at least, so far 
excluded from its notice or care all who reject its unwar- 
rantable terms of communion as to deprive multitudes 
of the privileges of common worship and of the comfort 
and edification of the Word and Sacrament of Christ's 
body and blood. 

We are here, then, first of all, to shepherd the sheep 
of our own fold, to tend and feed them as dwellers in a 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 109 

strange land, who cannot accept what the Papacy offers 
without accepting a bondage fatal to the faith in which 
they have been reared and to the liberty wherewith 
Christ has made them free. But, on the other hand, 
while here for the discharge of so grave an obligation 
to its children, this Reformed Catholic Church of Amer- 
ica does not come in a spirit of aggressive propagand- 
ist^ nor to work confusion and disorder, nor to plant a 
new sect. The witness it will deliver to those who will, 
from time to time, tarry here to gaze upon these tide- 
marks of the ages, and to study the wonders of art and 
the rich legacies of vanished empire, will not and can- 
not be confined to them. It will become of necessity a 
positive element in the surrounding life, and will wield 
an influence far transcending the narrow and often ob- 
scure circle within which it will first operate. It must 
take its place in the inevitable conflict of opinions ; and, 
so far as it shall prove itself true, it will be clothed with 
the power and will achieve the victories that belong 
to truth. Controversy it will neither invite nor decline 
if the interests of truth demand it. As much as in it 
lieth it will strive for peace with all men and for the 
true unity of Christ's Body. 

Again, this parish, though working in a foreign 
land, will be imbued with the genius and identified with 
the characteristic movements of the Church which it 
represents. In all that it will do, or leave undone, in its 
teaching and worship, and in the practical duties of the 



HO ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

pastorate ; in its dealing with individual souls, and with 
the intellectual and theological tendencies of the time, 
it will reproduce throughout the sphere of its influence, 
not merely the Catholic Christianity which is the com- 
mon inheritance of all the historic Churches, but Catho- 
lic Christianity as it has been modified in its minor ac- 
cidents by contact with American life. As it will min- 
ister primarily to Americans, so its ministrations will 
of right and necessity be permeated more or less by an 
American spirit. Nor, we are persuaded, will this fact 
at all hinder or discredit those ministrations among this 
people, whose hearts recent events have brought into 
active sympathy with the nobler elements of that youth- 
ful and yet imperial life across the sea. It cannot be 
but that in this laud of reviving culture, liberty, and 
progress, not a few of the characteristic ideas of Amer- 
ican civilization — its intelligent patriotism, its love of 
equal justice, its loyal submission to law, its ardent love 
of knowledge and universal education, its enthusiastic 
devotion to national unity, its conception of civil gov- 
ernment as at once the servant and the master of the 
popular will— it cannot be but that here these and simi- 
lar ideas, though presented in all their wonted breadth 
and freedom, and as forming part of the general atmos- 
phere of the religion to be preached in this place, will 
be welcomed with joy and accepted as helps to the 
solution of some of the more grave and disquieting 
problems of the hour. 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. HI 

But, if this parish is to be regarded as the organ of 
the Reformed Catholic Church of America in this capi- 
tal, it may be well to forecast somewhat in detail the 
testimony it will deliver by considering some of the 
avowed aims and sympathies of that Church so far as 
they relate to the theological tendencies and ecclesiasti- 
cal movements of the time. 

As might be expected by all who know anything of 
her history, the American Church is concerned, before 
all else, to maintain the purity and integrity of the 
Catholic Faith. In discharging this highest function of 
her stewardship, no branch of the Church has had a 
more varied and instructive experience. She knows, as 
scarcely any other part of the Church in this century 
knows, what it costs to give an unflinching witness to 
the truth and order of the kingdom of God. Her his- 
tory from the beginning has been one of conflict with 
adversaries of every name. At no time have her bor- 
ders been free from the smoke and tumult of battle. 
From almost nothing she has grown to be what she is 
amid the contradictions and anarchies of sects — each at 
times more anxious to extend the power of its organiza- 
tion than to preserve the fragmentary deposit of truth 
taken into its keeping. And, it may be added, that her 
growth has been sure rather than fast because of the 
unswerving testimony which she has borne to unwel- 
come or forgotten portions of the Church's faith and 
order. In standing fast, as she has, through this first 



112 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

century of her independent existence, for the defense 
and confirmation of a complete and undefiled Christian- 
ity, she has been doubly tried. It had been enough, 
perhaps, for her praise among the Churches if she had 
successfully met the religious errors and extravagances 
engendered by the restless energy and crude liberty 
necessarily incident to the formative period of such a 
diversified and intense life as that which has been so 
rapidly developed on the American Continent. But she 
has done far more than this. For it must be reckoned 
as among not the least of her responsibilities that she 
has been obliged to confront antagonists born and 
nursed here amid this Old World life. Europe has giv- 
en to America much of her blood of every name. But 
with it she has given much of her ignorance and sin — 
much of her infidelity and superstition. The evils aris- 
ing here from a half-dead or a corrupt religion have been 
aggravated by migration across the sea. The unbelief 
that is silent here under the pressure of external au- 
thority, finds a licensed tongue there. The ecclesiasti- 
cal ambition that here cajoles or threatens kings and 
cabinets, there dallies and intrigues with the democratic 
masses, veiling the iron hand of intolerance and perse- 
cution under plausible professions of love for liberty 
and knowledge. 

Now, it has been in such a school that the American 
Church has learned how needful it is to maintain whole 
and undefiled the Catholic Faith. That she has learned 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. H3 

this lesson well, and that she means every parish she 
plants, every diocese she organizes, every bishop she 
consecrates, and every priest she ordains, shall learn it 
well, there can be no question. The proof of her inten- 
tion is evident in all that she has said and done, in her 
written and spoken thought, in her liturgy and her laws, 
in her practical administration, and in all the utterances 
and movements of her corporate life. Whatever the 
religious confusions and adulterations, whatever the re- 
ligious instability and disloyalty of the time, her heart 
and voice go out in resolute and emphatic witness for 
the Faith once delivered to the saints : once in respect of 
time, as never to be repeated ; once in respect of quan- 
tity, as never to be added to or taken from ; once in 
respect of quality, as never to be improved by any pos- 
sible progress of the human race. 

The American Church may not have studied some of 
the evil omens of the time so profoundly as they deserve. 
The enormous pressure of practical work has not al- 
lowed her to spend more than chance hours in the clois- 
ters or in the watch-towers of modern religious learn- 
ing. Amid her absorbing endeavors to win over to 
Christ and His Church the incoming millions about her, 
she has looked to her mother — the Church of England — 
so incomparably rich in all the conditions and resources 
of a ripe and versatile culture, to furnish the larger 
share of the apologetic literature needed for the defense 
and explanation of dogmatic truth. Nevertheless, in a 



114 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

thousand ways and in a thousand fields of labor she has 
evinced her deep solicitude at the perils which threaten 
the Faith. She is keenly alive to, and would set her 
house in order against, them all, come from what source 
they may : whether from the atheistic materialism that 
would substitute " a stream of tendency " for the per- 
sonal Jehovah ; or from the advanced free thought 
which clings to the nomenclature of Christianity while 
declaring the doctrines for which it stands obsolete, and 
which is not ashamed to eat the Church's bread while 
engaged in the traitorous task of eviscerating her creed 
and loosening the joints of her corporate life ; or from 
the Gallio-like latitudinarianism which regards indefi- 
niteness of dogmatic statement as a blessing, and finds a 
new hope for the ultimate union of all believers in com- 
promises and dilutions which sap the very foundations 
of belief; or from the sentimental sestheticism which 
shrinks from marring the perfect beauty of the Son of 
God by answering with dogmatic authority that ques- 
tion of questions, " What think ye of Christ ? " or, 
finally, from the Ultramontanism which, in open defiance 
of Scripture, right reason, and history, elaborates at will 
new dogmas from the mine of uncritical tradition and 
coins so-called Catholic verities from the devotional fer- 
vors and stray fancies of the fathers. Against these 
and all like dangers she strives to protect, at all hazards, 
the sheep of Christ's fold committed to her care. 

But the duty of maintaining and perpetuating the 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. H5 

Catholic Faith cannot be satisfactorily treated apart from 
a question which recent events have forced into great 
prominence. Whatever may be the value of unwritten 
tradition, patristic authority, and even General Councils, 
as subordinate guides to the right understanding of the 
verities of our religion, the written Word of God is the 
original and unerring source of all that is necessary to 
be believed for the soul's health and salvation. But ex- 
perience shows and the reason of the thing demands that 
the written Word, in order to accomplish its purpose, 
must have an interpreter practically as unerring as itself. 
If this be so, where is that interpreter to be found ? 
Under what conditions and by what tongue does it 
speak ? Revolve this question as we may, it is undeni- 
ably pressed home by the logic of events as scarcely any 
other is, upon the deepest and most serious thought of 
the day. It is impossible that any living branch of the 
Church can be silent amid the grave and portentous 
conflict of opinion which it has excited. Certainly that 
branch which speaks here to-day through her episco- 
pate, her priesthood, and faithful laity, would deem it 
a shame to be dumb upon such a subject, and especially 
so amid these surroundings. She has very earnest and, 
I believe, very definite, convictions in regard to it ; and 
I do not err, I am sure, in supposing that the occasion 
which has called us here invites and justifies their ex- 
pression. 

There are some fundamentals connected with this 



116 ST. PAUL'S. WITHIN .THE WALLS. 

subject which are not open to debate. The Holy Script- 
ures were given to the Church once and for all. When 
they were given they could have had but oue meaning. 
That meaning was understood, and transmitted to us by 
the inspired waiter. Whatever that meaning was, it 
must be the same in all times and in all places. The 
salvation of man is helped or hindered according as that 
meaning is perfectly or imperfectly, rightly or wrongly, 
apprehended. Again, to all believers it is a certainty 
that the Holy Ghost abides in the Church always ; that 
He abides there, among other reasons, to guide the 
Church into all truth which God has revealed ; and that 
the only security we have against error is derived from 
His guidance, which we must believe to be infallible, if 
we believe Him to exist at all. On these points there 
is and there can be no controversy among Christians. 
But, these points admitted, the vital question remains, 
How does this infallible Guide operate ? Does He work 
upon each mind separately and independently, or upon 
each mind through the whole Body of Christ— the 
Church ? Again, if the Holy Ghost operates upon each 
mind through the Church, how is that operation ex- 
pressed and certified ? Is it through the Church Catho- 
lic, as it exists in all times and in all places, and as 
it speaks through (Ecumenical Councils and the con- 
sentient teaching of its doctors ? Or is it through the 
Church Catholic finding authorized utterance only in a 
personal and infallible head ? 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. H7 

Now, the extreme Protestant theory asserts that 
there are really only two factors working on the mind 
of Scripture — the individual reason and the Holy Spirit 
working through it. The Romish theory agrees with 
this in the number of factors ; but for every man's rea- 
son substitutes the reason of one man — the Pope's, the 
alleged head of the Body. The primitive theory, and, 
as this Church believes, the only safe and true one, ad- 
mits the three factors named in the Word of God — the 
Holy Ghost, the Church, the individual. For, undenia- 
bly, the Word appeals .to the individual soul as having 
an ultimate responsibility for receiving or rejecting the 
truth, exhibits the Holy Ghost as the Guide into all 
truth, and declares the Church to be the pillar and 
ground of the truth, and hence the keeper and witness 
of Holy Writ. Now, it is sure that the help of the Holy 
Ghost is part of the spiritual birthright of every be- 
liever. ■ But, on the other hand, if this help were given 
to every believer in such a sense as that he would be 
enabled to interpret an infallible book by an infallible 
guide, then it would follow of necessity that every be- 
liever's interpretation would, in itself be infallible. But 
in the light of history and experience this is impossible 
— impossible alike for pope or bishop, priest or layman. 
In substance the following argument has often been set 
forth by our theologians : It is the teaching of Scripture 
that the Spirit is given wholly to none save Christ. 
Unto us, that is, unto all believers individually, whether 



118 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

exercising official function in the Church or not, the 
Spirit is given by measure. His gifts are divided to 
every man severally as He wills, some to this one, some 
to that ; but all gifts to none. But, thus divided, they 
are gathered up again in their fullness, as in Christ, the 
Head, so in the Church which is His Body. Hence, if 
infallibility be found anywhere, it must be found not 
in any single believer, not in any single officer of the 
Church, however exalted, but in all believers collective- 
ly — in the corporate whole, the Church. 

This view finds its sufficient proof in the relation 
which the Church holds to Christ. For St. Paul tells us 
that this relation is not that merely of a member to its 
head, but of the wife to- her husband. And from this he 
argues that the Church enjoys with Christ a complete 
partnership or community of gifts and privileges. What 
was His is hers. And so if to Him the Spirit was given 
without measure, the Spirit in the same sense is given 
to her without measure. His infallibility is her infalli- 
bility. Hence we declare our faith not only in God the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but also in the 
Catholic Church. Such is the ground and such is the 
form of the only infallibility which God's Word guaran- 
tees. 

But, with the facts of history before us, and in order 
to make this infallibility a practical thing, it is necessary 
to show how this attribute of the Church asserts itself, 
and how we can be helped by it amid the changes and con- 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 119 

flicts of religious opinion. There has been no part of the 
Church which in one way or another has not gone astray. 
The Churches of Asia erred. We believe the same of 
the Eastern and Roman Churches, and we cannot sup- 
pose that our own is free from error. But, if all the 
parts be fallible, how can the whole body be infallible ? 
The answer must be sought in the mode of the Holy 
Ghost's operation. He does not make any one individ- 
ual, or assembly of individuals, whether Pope or General 
Council, infallible. Nor has He so dwelt in the Church 
universal of any one age as to make that infallible. 
And yet it is not the less true that He so adjusts and 
overrules the fallible individual elements as to secure 
infallibility in the whole Catholic body. In this way, 
to adopt the happy illustration of another, " the whole 
is a system of compensations similar to that which, in 
the pendulum of an astronomical clock, or thebalance 
of a chronometer, so adjusts its materials that the inac- 
curacy of every one part shall in all cases correct the 
inaccuracy of every other part, thus producing from ele- 
ments — all of them imperfect — a perfect and equable 
whole." The only (Ecumenical Council of which it can 
be said that it never errs, or can err, is the Council of 
the Church universal ; not the Church of the fourth, or 
the fifth, or the tenth, or the nineteenth century, any 
more than of the Church of Rome or of Alexandria ; but 
the Church of all time as well as of all space. " The 
Council that we appeal to is that in which Chrysostom, 
6 



120 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

with Theophylact, arranges with Augustine and Remi- 
gius, with Andrewes and Leighton, the boundaries of 
faith and duty ; where Cyril lays down to Caietan and 
Zanchius on the one hand, and Beza and Yorstius on 
the other, his theory of the Divine presence, while Bing- 
ham stands by and weighs the authorities in his honest 
and impartial balance. Men may be fallible, General 
Councils may err : this is a council which cannot err, 
whose canons are fixed and infallible." For to this con- 
tinuous assembly, as has been shown, the Holy Ghost is 
given without measure, as He was to Christ the Head, 
who is all in all. 

Practically this sort of infallibility does not cover 
every detail in which this or that mind may be inter- 
ested. There are numberless permitted opinions on 
which it does not decide. There are wide reaches of 
theological speculation with which it does not interfere. 
But it settles all necessary things, and, with regard to 
them, plants our feet on a rock which cannot be shaken. 
It gives us the Faith once delivered, and the meaning of 
all the Scriptures which authenticate that Faith. It 
gives us the Church, and the meaning of all the Script- 
ures which relate to its constitution, order, and fellow- 
ship. It gives us the true pattern of the Divine life in 
the individual soul, and the meaning of all the Scriptures 
which portray the gifts and graces which compose that 
life. 

If we study this subject historically, we shall find 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 121 

that there have been five distinct periods in which the 
Holy Ghost has wrought specially upon the mind of the 
Church. In the first period — that of the persecution — 
He gave us, through the organization of the Church, the 
Apostles' Creed, the threefold Ministry, the Sacraments, 
and liturgical worship. In these we may trace every 
vital doctrine of religion, not clearly defined, but broad- 
ly stated. In due time this first period lapsed into the 
second — that of the undisputed General Councils — when 
the Holy Ghost guided the Church to a definition, in the 
Nicene Creed, of what it had all along steadfastly be- 
lieved. In the third period — that of the schoolmen — 
the Church, under the same guidance, elaborated the 
Athanasian Creed. This period, as has been frequently 
proved, did for words what the second did for ideas. 
And so theology, both in precision of terms and of ideas, 
developed into a recognized science. The fourth period 
— that of the Reformation — swayed by the same direct- 
ing hand, and in order to purge the Church of the doc- 
trinal and practical errors which had been slowly culmi- 
nating, undertook an exhaustive revision of doctrine and 
practice, appealing to Holy Scripture, as interpreted by 
a primitive and pure antiquity ; while the fifth and last 
period — that of modern times — has attempted a radical 
reexamination of all that had been done in the previous 
periods. We accept, then, as infallibly true whatever 
was certainly held in the first period, defined in the sec- 
ond, and established by the critical labors of the others. 



122 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

And this we do, because whatever has thus passed into 
the mind and tradition of the Church, bears the evident 
stamp of the witness of the Holy Ghost, which is the 
voice of the Holy Catholic Church in all times and in all 
places. This is an infallibility which satisfies human 
reason, harmonizes with the Word of God, both asserts 
and limits the proper functions of the Church as the 
teacher and guardian of the Faith, and makes all history 
for eighteen centuries a coherent and indisputable wit- 
ness to the Word and work of the historic religion of 
Jesus Christ. In the presence of such a witness to truth, 
Trentine enactments and Vatican decrees and Papal fiats 
are of moment only in that branch of the Church from 
which they emanate. As addressed to the whole Church 
they are alike powerless and impertinent. 

Again, if the American Church is outspoken and 
resolved in maintaining the Catholic Faith, she is not 
less so in maintaining the Apostolic Order of the 
Church. She affirms with one consent, and in conform- 
ity with Holy Scripture and primitive antiquity, the 
unity ', equality, and the solidarity of the Episcopate — 
the unity in the sense that all grades of the ministry 
fall back on it as their common ground, and trace 
through it their apostolic descent from Christ, the Head 
— the equality in the sense that all who bear office 
share alike both as to quality and degree in the divine 
gifts and functions attached to it ; the solidarity in the 
sense that the Episcopate constitutes a sacred and ma- 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 123 

jestic fellowship of the ordained leaders of God's elect, 
a fellowship in which the strength of the whole can be 
thrown into every part, and the strength of every part 
into the whole ; the distribution and concentration of 
official power being regulated by the principle of organic 
interdependence between all the members of the Apos- 
tolic College. If the Church be one, that oneness must 
exhibit itself as well by oneness of order as by oneness 
of faith. To set forth and maintain this oneness of 
order is a cardinal function of every genuine bishopric. 
The Episcopate is the organ of the Church's voice when 
she speaks, and the pivot on which she turns when she 
would marshal her hosts for defense or go forth to meet 
her enemies at the gate. Every true bishop is the vis- 
ible sign and centre of church unity for the place where 
he abides ; and communion with him in the bonds of 
the one Faith is the sufficient evidence of Catholicity in 
the belief and obedience of every member of Christ's 
body. 

The Episcopate, moreover, is the Church's corporate 
witness unto her living Head, and unto the truth as it is 
in Him. For, said Christ unto the Apostles and through 
them unto their successors forever, " Ye shall be witness- 
es unto me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Sa- 
maria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." To 
the Episcopate also has been committed, in all its various 
uses and applications, authority of oversight and gov- 
ernment in the Church of God — an authority which, 



124 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

though subject to canonical regulation and amenable to 
the unwritten law of ancient and universal custom, is 
always of the nature of an inherent and inalienable 
right. For the sake of greater efficiency of ecclesiasti- 
cal administration, or of more prompt and easy inter- 
communication between different portions of the Church, 
Provincial and General Councils may establish gradations 
of authority running up from bishops to metropolitans, 
exarchs, and patriarchs. But in all such arrangements 
for convenience nothing may be lawfully done to impair 
the integrity and normal influence of the bishopric as 
the ultimate unit of the Church's order and authority. 

This we hold to be the Scriptural and primitive view 
on this very important subject. How sadly it has been 
neglected and violated by the two extremes of Christen- 
dom need not be argued. By the one the Episcopate 
has been dwarfed into a function of the presbyterate, 
mere Papal appointment taking the place of solemn 
ordination ; the priest commissioned to do the bishop's 
work without assuming the bishop's order; the Pope 
absorbing into himself the entire Episcopate as though 
it were a single bishopric, and leaving no room for any 
divinely established order in the ministry between him- 
self and the ordinary priesthood: while the other ex- 
treme has cast aside altogether this chief order in 
Christ's Kingdom, and, on the ground of ministerial 
parity, has permitted both the office and the order to 
fall into disuse and contempt. 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 125 

It is impossible to estimate the evils which have 
been produced by these radical departures from the 
original polity of the Church. When the arch built by 
the Divine hand is robbed of its key-stone, it cannot be 
expected to preserve its strength and symmetrj 7 . When 
man's inventions supplant God's arrangements, disorder 
and ruin must ensue. But for Rome's mutilation of the 
Apostolic Episcopate the great schism between the East 
and the West- — the parent of all subsequent schisms — had 
not taken place. On the other hand, but for the aban- 
donment of that Episcopate by a large part of the reform 
movement in the sixteenth century, there had been no 
Protestantism which, because of its doctrinal disintegra- 
tion and chronic tendency to sect divisions, could tempt 
not only bigots and scoffers, but men of catholic temper, 
to pronounce it a failure. 

I need not argue for the restoration of the primitive 
ideal of the Christian Ministry. Voices older than many 
of these monumental ruins about us plead for it as no 
living tongue can. Witnesses for it abound in the great 
libraries of this venerable city ; witnesses ready to take 
the stand in the general court of Christendom whenever 
summoned from their here enforced silence and obscu- 
rity ; witnesses which the accumulated errors and usur- 
pations of a thousand years have not banished from the 
Church's memory. There is Irenasus in the second cen- 
tury speaking for the Christians of Gaul and reproving 
Victor of Rome for his attempted assumption of author- 



126 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

ity over the bishops of Asia. 1 There is Cyprian at the 
close of the third century with that memorable declara- 
tion on his lips, " Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis 
in solidum pars tenetur." There is Jerome at the end 
of the fourth century who tells us, " Wherever there is 
a bishop, whether at Rome, or at Eugabium, or Constan- 
tinople, or Rhegium, or Alexandria, or Tani, he is of 
the same worth. Neither the power of riches nor the 
humility of poverty maketh a bishop to be higher or 
lower; but they are all successors of the Apostles." 
There, too, most significant of all, is Gregory the Great 
of Rome, just as the sixth was lapsing into the seventh 
century, rebuking John the Faster, bishop of the rival 
see of Constantinople, for daring to assume the title of 
universal bishop, and telling that proud ascetic that who- 
ever took such a title to himself " was the precursor of 
Antichrist." Such are a few out of the multitude of 
witnesses. Their testimony leaves no room for a reason- 
able doubt. It is so positive that it seems strange that 
any question on this subject should ever have been 
raised, and far more so that a vast hierarchical scheme 
should have been built up on the denial not only of its 
force and validity, but even of its existence. 

Again, the American Church cherishes a lively sym- 
pathy with all properly-planned efforts for the multipli- 

1 Euseb. Hist. Eccl., 1. v., cap. 24 ; Cyp. de Un. Eccl., p. 108 ; 
Hieronymus ad Evagrium, Epis. 85 ; Robertson's " History of the 
Christian Church," vol. ii., part i., p. 9, passim. 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 127 

cation of national Churches — a subject of constantly- 
increasing interest to our modern Christianity ; she be- 
lieves this policy to be abundantly sanctioned by prim- 
itive precedent, by the nature of things, and by the 
fundamental law of the Church's expansion. Especially 
does she advocate it now in view of two opposite and 
equally alarming tendencies of the hour. On the one 
hand, there is a strong drift in the ecclesiastical mind 
to substitute more and more centralization for universal- 
ity, absolutism for regulated liberty, the sovereignty of 
a popedom for the rights and customs of autonomous 
Churches; while, on the other hand, and as the result 
of an ultra-Protestant reaction from this extreme, there 
is an equally pronounced tendency to resolve the his- 
toric Church into a loose congeries of independent sects, 
each striving for self-aggrandizement, and some not un- 
willing to throw over any part of the Faith which is an 
offense to the easy thinking or the skeptical indifference 
of the time. 

National Churches duly planted, independent in local 
concerns, but confederated for the promotion of common 
interests, self-governing and yet in active communion 
and fellowship with all sister Churches, bound together 
in the grand historic series, and yet pulsating with 
the social, political, and intellectual life of the peoples 
to whOm they minister the Word, and Sacraments, and 
Discipline of Christ — such Churches are the providen- 
tially-elected barriers against the despotism threatened 



128 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

by the one and the anarchy produced by the other of 
these tendencies. 

The nation in its own sphere is as much God's ordi- 
nance as the family or the Church. It is the civil unit 
of races, and is ordinarily not more the offspring of physi- 
cal causes — such as blood, and climate, and geographical 
boundaries — than it is of God working in history and 
speaking through the hopes and ambitions, the antipa- 
thies and enthusiasms, of mankind. The nation comes 
to the birth, ripens, declines, and dies. It has will, con- 
science, memory, personality. It suffers and rejoices. 
It is rewarded for the good and punished for the evil 
done in the body. It has a distinct and necessary agency 
in the collection and transmission of knowledge. In its 
heart and brain, in its experience and achievement, 
civilization finds the solution of its problems and the 
demonstrations of its laws. The nation is the noblest 
incorporated factor of the world's life, and as such is it 
regarded both by Divine revelation and by human thought 
ag the foremost of all secular instrumentalities in devel- 
oping the counsels of God's will. What, then, more 
suitable to the fitness of things, or expressive of the 
Divine wisdom, than that the limits of the nation should 
be accepted as the metes and bounds of the organic sub- 
divisions of the Church of Christ ? In this way more 
effectually than in any other does the idea of the univer- 
sal and eternal kingdom of God acquire a name and a 
visible habitation among the tribes and kindreds of men. 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 129 

So, too, by being blended with the sublime personalities 
of nations, all the divine gifts and energies of that king- 
dom are intensified as they can be by no other method of 
distributing ecclesiastical power. 

History affords not a few undoubted proofs that this 
was intended to be the law of the Divine movement, in 
bringing to bear upon the human race the truth and 
discipline of the Church. Plainly there was the sugges- 
tion of this law in the national groups assembled on the 
day of Pentecost, to hear each in its own tongue the won- 
derful works of God ; while, beyond all question, there 
was a more or less complete fulfillment of it in the plant- 
ing and organization of Churches by the Apostles and 
their successors in the first ages of the Faith. Set aside 
and even reprobated, as it has been, for a thousand years, 
by the centralizing policy of the Latin communion, this 
law reasserted itself as one consequence of the return 
to early teaching and precedent achieved by the conflicts 
of the sixteenth century. Ever since, sometimes instinc- 
tively and sometimes consciously, it has permeated and 
directed all orderly attempts at permanent ecclesiastical 
organization which have grown out of the great mission- 
ary movements of the Church of England. England's 
colonies have wellnigh belted the globe. Industrially, 
politically, and religiously, they may be said to have 
changed the destinies of at least three out of five con- 
tinents. The Cross has gone wherever her flag has 
been accepted as the symbol of an established sovereign- 



130 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

ty. In the most of her dependencies, what were at first 
feeble missions of the parent national Church, have al- 
ready developed into Churches which are substantially 
autonomous. The earliest of these colonial missions is 
the Church of America, which speaks here to-day ; and 
what occurred there a century ago must, in the course 
of events, occur sooner or later in British North Amer- 
ica, in India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and 
some of the island groups of the Pacific. The territorial 
limits of to-day will become the boundaries, if not of 
new nations, then at least of new and independent 
Churches, each exercising full liberty of decreeing rites 
and ceremonies conditioned only by fidelity to the faith 
and order of the Catholic Church, and all as loving daugh- 
ters united in holy fellowship and communion with their 
common mother, and with the whole Body of Christ 
throughout the world. 1 

1 Since the first appeal in behalf of a colonial episcopate, forty 
years ago, more than sixty new sees have been founded in intimate 
connection with, and as the offspring of, the English Church. This 
wonderful increase of daughter Churches has naturally brought to the 
front the consideration of their proper position and due subordination 
to the parent Church. The question has occurred, and will occur 
again : Are these colonial Churches to be contented with the idea which 
prevailed at their first creation, viz., that they should be a mere trans- 
planting of a branch of the Church of England, with its perfect organ- 
ization of a threefold Ministry, a completed Prayer-Book, and a re- 
formed ordinal, into the new colony, or old heathen dependency of the 
crown ? or are they, with their enlarged sphere, to entertain and to 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 131 

This revival by the great Anglican Communion of 
the apostolic law of church expansion will plead power- 
fully with other sections of Reformed Christendom to 

act upon larger, truer, and surer principles, and to seek to become 
independent, territorial, national Churches, entirely separate from, 
though retaining a perfect union and communion with, the Church of 
^ngland ? This question is assuming, year by year, larger importance. 
The various colonial Churches have, if the expression may be allowed, 
attained the growth of a vigorous youth, and have necessarily cast off 
the swaddling-clothes of their more immature infancy. 

The course of events is gradually working to this end. It is gen- 
erally asserted that the present Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a 
few years since so zealous in requiring from every colonial bishop the 
oath of canonical obedience to himself, no longer insists on that con- 
dition as a necessary prerequisite to obtaining his sanction for the 
consecration of a colonial bishop. The College of the Bishops of South 
Africa, in their late synodical meeting, repudiated altogether this de- 
mand. They unhesitatingly insist on the rule that " every suffragan 
bishop should take the oath of canonical obedience to the metropolitan 
of his own province, and to no other ; and further, that no archbishop 
or metropolitan of a province should be required to take such an oath 
to any other archbishop or metropolitan." This canon, laid down by 
the African bishops, gives the true solution of the question by secur- 
ing the independent existence and the complete organization of each 
colonial Church ; by providing it with the means of taking its place in 
the visible community of the Catholic Church, and yet, at the same 
time, enabling it to retain a perfect union and communion with the See 
of Canterbury. This fidelity to its original parentage is secured by the 
acceptance, through the National and Diocesan Synod, as the very 
groundwork of its constitution, of the Prayer-Book, articles, canons, 
and discipline of the English Church. — English Churchman, June, 1873. 



132 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

do likewise. All that part of the religious mind of Ger- 
many that has been aroused into active resistance by 
the late enormous claims of the Vatican is already con- 
vinced that the only sure barrier against those claims 
must be found in a Church of the nation and for the 
nation. The same conviction is gaining ground in Italy 
among all who cling to the principle of an historic Church 
and yet repudiate the errors of the Church of Rome. 
And, I doubt not, the time will come when the Holy 
Orthodox Church in Russia, as she multiplies her branches 
among the dependencies of the empire, will act upon the 
ancient law which has shaped, with such happy results, 
the various colonial outgrowths from the Church of Eng- 
land. 

But I must pass on to speak briefly of another topic 
of absorbing interest — the restoration of the lost unity 
of the Church of Christ. With every reasonable and 
healthy attempt toward this end, the Church in Amer- 
ica most earnestly sympathizes. It is scarcely too much 
to say that the hearts of her clergy and her people have 
been bowed as the heart of one man in solemn interces- 
sions with the God of all grace and truth for the fulfill- 
ment of the prayer of our blessed Lord that all who love 
His holy name may be one in Him and in His Church, as 
the Father and Himself are one. She mourns over the 
unhappy divisions of Christendom, not only because they 
defeat what she believes to be the true theory of eccle- 
siastical unity ; not only because they cloud her visions 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 133 

of the ideal glory of the bride of Christ ; nor yet only 
because they chill her enthusiasm in the service of the 
Gospel ; but, in addition to all these, because of her 
bitter and disastrous experience of the evils engendered 
by those divisions in the land which is the scene of her 
labors — evils which threaten the social life of America 
with disintegration, and cast an ominous shadow upon 
the future of its otherwise hopeful civilization. And 
yet, earnestly as she yearns for the healing of those di- 
visions, she does not forget, nor allow those about her to 
forget, the nature of the unity which she craves, nor the 
means by which alone its consummation can be attained. 
The laws of this unity are not of man's enactment, but 
of God's revelation. They are not local and temporary, 
but universal and unchangeable. As there is but one 
Head, even Christ, so there is but one body, even the 
body of Christ. And as there is but one body, so there 
is and can be but one Church. There can be two 
Churches no more than two faiths, two Lords, two bap- 
tisms. The whole Church is Christ's Body, and Christ's 
Body is the whole Church. The unity of each is recipro- 
cally and necessarily the unity of the other. It is impos- 
sible that several Churches can exist in the sense that 
each contains the totality of the one body. For there 
is no whole thing that can be contained in one of its 
parts. In view of all the purposes for which the Church 
was instituted, there is for some of these purposes as 
much need of a visible, organic unity, as there is for 



134 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

others of a spiritual unity. To be content with the lat- 
ter is to leave the half of the Divine idea unrealized, and 
with it the half of the Church's office and work unful- 
filled. But if the true and complete unity must on one 
side be seen and corporate, as well as unseen and spirit- 
ual on the other, it must exhibit itself amid whatever 
diversity of external features, by signs and notes which 
all may discern, and none may reasonably doubt. What 
these are may be certainly known from Holy Scripture 
and apostolic practice. 

This is the unity which the Church once had, but 
lost ; and in losing it drew upon herself a partial 
paralysis of her power, together with woes which have 
filled our Zion with mourning and desolation. To re- 
cover this lost treasure is the great question of the 
hour. In no respect have these schools of thought and 
fellowships of independent sectaries which rejoice in 
their special hold on the great thoughts and franchises 
of our modern life shown a more hopeless feebleness 
and confusion than in their attempts to deal with this 
problem. The folly of sentimental unions and diplo- 
matic truces and hollow alliances has been too clearly 
exposed to allow them much influence or favor in the 
future. There is and there can be no healing virtue for 
the Church's gaping wounds in vague schemes of sec- 
tarian confederation, which start with affirming either 
that there are no differences serious enough to justify 
division, or that the differences which exist are so serious 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 135 

as to render divisions inevitable and incurable. Mod- 
ern inventions must give place to the ancient wisdom. 
The Divine pattern of unity was given on the Mount. 
In was given, too, as certainly and made as obligatory 
as the two tables of the Law. That pattern reappeared 
in the mind and teaching of Christ. It was reproduced 
in the organizing work of the Apostles. It gave shape 
and direction to the faith, and polity, and life, of the 
early Christian ages. To this we must return. All 
efforts toward unity that reject it are worthless, and will 
float away as foam-bubbles on the noisy tide of our 
modern anarchy. This disorderly, schismatic life of the 
time must be gathered up and recast in the mould of a 
traditional historic Christianity, purged alike of Popish 
and sectarian novelties and perversions — a Christianity 
taught in the Gospel of the Son of God, summed up in 
the primitive Creeds, attested by the undisputed Gen- 
eral Councils, preached by the threefold Ministry, sealed 
by the Evangelic Sacraments, and wrought as fine gold 
seven times purified into the prayers and songs of the 
saints of all ages. 

It must be borne in mind, too, that the desire for the 
restoration of unity, though it has manifested itself of 
late with singular fervor, is no new or strange thing. 
It has lived on and asserted itself in various ways since 
the memorable schism of the ninth century. The eirenic 
literature of the last thousand years is a precious treas- 
ure of the Church, proving as it does that the hope of 



136 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

better things — even of the one Fold on earth, as of the 
one Shepherd in heaven — has never died within her. 
On all sides, of every name, in former days, as now, 
there have been those who longed and labored for the 
blessed consummation. Among them there have been 
bishops of this famous See like Adrian VI. and Clement 
XIV. ; learned and pious doctors of the Latin obedience 
like Leander and Santa Clara, Panzani and Bossuet ; 
also of the Lutheran and Anglican communion like Leib- 
nitz and Wake. But the present throbs with this great 
yearning as has no period in the past ; and it is of 
moment to observe the attitude and spirit of the leading 
parties to any possible eirenicon of the near future. 
The various divisions of advanced Protestantism, which 
has been happily styled "an arrested development of 
free thought," have not the ability, if they had the wish, 
to contribute much to the movement. They are still too 
much in doubt whether schism be a curse or a blessing, 
to be capable of very deep convictions, or to strike very 
earnest blows. Rome, on the other hand, has in the 
last ten years hunted from her borders every vestige of 
the charity which found a voice in the Councils of Trent 
and Florence, and which continued to speak out timidly 
perhaps, but sincerely, in a series of her best scholars 
and divines, until silenced by the relentless intolerance 
of the late Vatican Council. With a proud contempt of 
all who resist her will, she stands forth boldly declaring 
that she will accept from external bodies no terms of 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 137 

fellowship but such as can be summed up in a confession 
of error and a prayer for mercy. The Church of the 
East, as represented by its most vigorous and enlightened 
branches, has broken through the isolation of centuries 
and is now studying in a kindly and comprehensive spirit 
the history and theology, the polity and worship, of the 
Reformed Churches of the West ; while the Old Catho- 
lics, aside from other important offices in the develop- 
ment and direction of the religious thought of the time, 
are now with vast credit to themselves holding the com- 
manding position of an accepted mediator between the 
Eastern and Western Churches. Of the origin and ob- 
ject, the tone and progress, the already splendid services 
and achievements of this movement, I need not speak in 
detail. All who hear me must be familiar with its aims 
and methods, and especially with the intelligent conser- 
vatism, the sturdy loyalty to the Church's faith and 
order, the wisely-directed energy and patient hopeful- 
ness which have thus far characterized its corporate ac- 
tion and its individual leaders. I am free to say that 
had it done no more than bring to the front of our liv- 
ing Christianity the illustrious Dollinger, a man whose 
marvelous gifts would have made him an ornament and 
a blessing to any age, and whose late inestimable ser- 
vices entitle him to rank with the great fathers of the 
past, it would have done enough to win for it the admi- 
ration and gratitude of all Christians. 

As for the Church of England, and our own Church 



138 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

of America, however their deep interest in all judicious 
attempts to rid the Church Catholic of the shame and 
sorrow of its present schisms may have been shown in 
other ways, it has been most conspicuously manifested 
in the timely and considerate cooperation which they 
have afforded to the leaders of the Old Catholic Reform 
movement. 

In dwelling upon this phase of the Christian thought 
and activity of the day, it is well to remember that all 
this stir and fervor in behalf of a restored unity have 
proceeded not from intemperate zealots, or dreaming 
mystics, or fiery reformers bent on a wild crusade against 
real or imaginary evils. They are, if anything in the 
present can be said to be so, the solemn and deliberate 
utterance of the mind and heart of Christendom, quick- 
ened to a nobler life, and burning with the rapt vision 
of what prophets predicted and apostles preached, and 
the saints of all ages cherished, and multitudes beyond 
the veil, which no man can number, now see reflected in 
the crystal sea around the throne. 

It remains, in conclusion, that something be said 
upon the attitude of this Church toward the Spirit of 
the Age. The Spirit of the Age is no unmeaning gen- 
erality. It has a sense sufficiently definite to enable us 
to grasp it. Whatever that sense may be, it is a folly 
to ignore it, and a crime to misrepresent it. If it be 
true that God is in history, then, in its deepest signifi- 
cance, the spirit of our time, as that of every time gone 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 139 

before, is the voice of God in the affairs of the world. 
Viewed on the surface, the Spirit of the Age is the life 
of the age expressing itself with a more or less marked 
individuality through all the great and customary forms 
of human activity, through industry and commerce, 
through society and government, through civilization 
and knowledge, through literature and religion. On 
one side it reflects God working in humanity, and, on 
the other, humanity working with or apart from God. It 
is neither altogether good nor altogether evil. It is the 
mixed product of mixed forces. For example, the aver- 
age man of the time craves unity in all knowledge, 
certainty in all he is asked to believe, equality before 
God and the law, solidarity among social classes and 
among peoples, liberty to be and to do whatever may be 
needful for the highest development of his manhood. 
Now, this craving is from God, and is the crystallization 
of an ideal which God has planted in the soul. But this 
craving is subject to many errors and abuses. It is 
often perverted by ignorance, corrupted by selfishness, 
and pressed into the service of anarchy. Thus God is 
the author of the impulse ; man is the author of its per- 
version. All efforts at human regeneration are wise or 
unwise, strong or weak, fruitful or fruitless, according to 
the degree in which they recognize this distinction. 

Now, if we have rightly defined what is meant by the 
Spirit of the Age, it will not be difficult to outline the 
attitude held toward it by the leading forms of our nine- 



140 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

teenth-century Christianity. There is no mistaking the 
present posture of Romanism. Its literature and theol- 
ogy, its conciliar decrees and avowed policy, its educa- 
tion and practical administration, leave no room for doubt. 
It hesitates not to denounce the characteristic life and 
movement of the time as born of Satan, and hopelessly 
depraved. It invites and justifies an irrepressible con- 
flict between the Gospel it preaches and the present 
reigning tendencies of civilization. It assails science as 
an enemy, and the best culture of the day as an abortion. 
All liberty that will not accept its authority is license, 
and all order in society and the state that is not obedient 
to its will is anarchy. It would be hard, indeed, to name 
anything that the age especially values as the outgrowth 
of its life which is not the object of its secret distrust 
or its open hatred. Asserting an absolute supremacy 
in all things temporal and spiritual, all things and all 
men that question or reject that supremacy are driven 
from its pale and execrated. The grounds and causes of 
its hostility are so evident that one's charity is in no 
way hazarded by stating them. It could not be expected 
to love, an age that is so out of joint with its own plans 
and aspirations — that is so sharp and resolute in re- 
minding it how often and with what madness and guilt 
it has broken with history, outlawed the Scriptures, and 
trampled on the rights of the common reason of man- 
kind. This is an age bent upon facts; the Papacy 
offers it novelties and fictions. It is an age that de- 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 141 

mands proof; the Papacy has got beyond such beggarly 
elements. It is an age that insists upon logic, and ac- 
counts demonstration a cardinal virtue of the intellect ; 
the Papacy treats both as the impertinence of a skep- 
tical generation, and invites mankind to rest their faith 
on the dictum of its bishop. There can be no concord 
between such opposites. The warfare between them 
must go on to the bitter end. 

But how, as regards the Spirit of the Age, stands all 
that part of our modern religion which accounts it its 
chief merit to be removed from Rome far as one pole 
from the other ; and what shall be said of the ultra- 
Protestant type of Christianity with its inordinate self- 
will, its undisciplined independence, its extravagances 
of private judgment, its skepticisms and its credulities ? 
This flatters and glorifies the age for the very reasons 
which move Romanism to condemn and revile it. For 
Rome's bald pessimism, it substitutes a sentimental op- 
timism. Admitted evils are only good in the making. 
Excesses indicate an overplus of life. Disease is in- 
choate health. Heresies are chiefly noteworthy as signs 
of emancipation from the grasp of narrow dogmas ; and 
schisms are the inevitable result of the operation of a 
law of elective affinity by which like wills and like hearts 
coalesce into congenial fellowship. It is the tendency 
of this extreme in religion, though often modified and 
restrained, to confound what is divine and what is of 
the earth, earthy, in the drift of the age. Itself un- 



142 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

stable, and rejoicing in its unchecked independence of 
thought and action, it lets loose the subtile solvents of a 
restless and ambitious individualism upon all wholesome 
authority, whether in the family, or the state, or the 
Church. Romanism cannot lead the age, because it 
hates the age. The religious systems on the opposite 
wing cannot lead it, or at least cannot lead it safely, 
because they repeat in their own sphere not a few of the 
evils of the age which cry most loudly for correction. 
The Church for which I speak — Reformed, Catholic, 
Apostolic— true to the ancient traditions, and at the 
same time to the modern spirit, is in sympathy neither 
with Popery nor sectism, in their theoretical conception 
or practical handling of the age. It neither disparages 
nor exalts, assails nor defends, the age. It is in accord 
with its spirit so far as it obeys the mind and purpose of 
God as exhibited in revelation and history. It opposes 
it so far as it rebels against them. It rejoices in its 
work, and is thankful to find in this century so much 
that is helpful to it in doing this work. Amid the won- 
derful activities and developments of these times, it de- 
voutly recognizes the Divine hand shaping the energies 
of humanity ; while it sets itself with such power as 
God has given it to overcome sin and wretchedness in 
all their forms. Given for all the ages, it is in and of 
this age ; but no more than it has been in and of the 
ages gone before. It finds in Christ, the everlasting Son 
of God, the only source of the unity, certainty, equality, 



FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 143 

and liberty, which can satisfy the cravings of man ; and 
so it is its supreme aim to domicile its Lord in every 
heart, and to establish his sovereignty over every in- 
tellectual movement, and every social and political in- 
stitution of the world. It preaches a Gospel which har- 
monizes with every rational aspiration and every noble 
achievement of the time. It rejoices over all growths 
of genuine knowledge and all gifts and graces of true 
culture. Its faith in the future glows more brightly at 
the grandeur of modern enterprise and the wonders of 
modern discovery ; for it knows that sooner or later they 
will enhance the power and extend the glory of the Cross. 
It would have all men obey a will higher and stronger 
than their own ; and it would have them do so because 
they are freemen and not slaves. It abhors despotism, 
and dreads individualism ; because both equally disturb 
the divine equilibrium in the affairs of religion and in the 
affairs of civil society. It would have order without 
stagnation, authority without oppression, and all forms 
of conscious organic life preserved in their integrity, and 
yet so tempered and adjusted as to make every man not 
less, but more, a man. 

Such, then, as we believe, are the convictions and 
sympathies of the Reformed Catholic Church of America 
on some of the leading topics which absorb more or less 
of the educated thought of the day. Those convictions 
and sympathies will, as occasion may require, be repro- 
duced in the teachings and ministrations of this holy 
7 



144 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

place. And, as this house will bear the name of the 
great Apostle to the Gentiles, let it be our prayer that 
the testimony to be delivered within its walls may be 
characterized not only by the boldness of speech and 
charity of feeling which made his ministry so wonderful 
among men, but also by his supreme desire to glorify the 
Gospel of the Son of God by bringing all men to know 
the riches of His grace and the power of His salvation. 

In behalf of the Church at home, in behalf of this 
parish, in behalf of all who shall worship here in coming 
time, I make grateful acknowledgment to all who on 
either side of the sea have by their services or by their 
offerings borne a part in this noble venture of faith. 
Nor may I withhold the tribute of the Church's praise 
from my beloved brother — the rector of this parish — who 
finds in what he is permitted to behold this day the re- 
ward for all his toils and anxieties. He has done well, 
and he will deserve to be remembered by all who shall 
hereafter enter into his labors, and build on the founda- 
tions which he has so wisely laid. 

And now, O God Triune, accept from our unworthy 
hands, for Jesu's sake, this temple builded in Thy name. 
Make it, we pray Thee, the habitation of Thy glory ; the 
place where Thine honor dwelleth ; and so the home of 
Thy people, and the joy of many generations. 



THE MYSTEKY OF THE GOSPEL. 145 



THE MYSTEEY OF THE GOSPEL. 

By the LOED BISHOP OP PETEEBOEOUGH. 

Sunday, March 2&h, 1876. 

" And for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open 
my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel." — Ephe- 
sians vi. 19. 

There is something very touching in these words, 
as we contrast them with the words which immediately 
precede them. They are part of St. Paul's famous ex- 
hortation to the Ephesians, in which, summing up all of 
teaching, of warning, of exhortation, he had previously 
given, he exhorts them finally to be strong in the Lord, 
and in the power of His might. How great, how brave 
St. Paul appears to us, as we remember his noble, his 
spirit-stirring words, as he calls forth the hosts of the 
Lord to their warfare against all forms of evil — " Put 
on the whole armor of God ! " We know, too, what a 
history these words have had — how they have been the 
very battle-song of the army of Christ. They read like 
the harangue of a great general calmly surveying the 
forces arrayed against him. From then till now those 



146 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

words have rung and floated high above all the noise 
and strife of the kingdoms of this world as they call the 
soldiers of Christ to war in His name. How great, how 
fearless does St. Paul appear to us as, writing thus from 
his prison, he defies the might of pagan Rome ! 

But, after these words of lofty courage, what fol- 
lows? Words which seem to breathe a fear lest he, 
who was exhorting others to stand fast in the evil day, 
might not be able himself to stand, might not speak as 
boldly as he ought to speak. He adds entreatingly, al- 
most piteously, "Pray for me." How touchingly do 
these words, which reveal the secret fear in the heart of 
the Apostle, sound in our ears as contrasted with those 
words of lofty cheer with which he encouraged others ! 
But they are not only very touching but very important 
for us. Without these words, and others like them, the 
writings of St. Paul would lose half their value. He 
would be for us, in that case, only the inspired Apostle 
— the great leader and lawgiver of the Christian Church 
seen, in the far distance of eighteen centuries, like that 
statue of the Lawgiver of the older covenant, which 
draws to it the admiring gaze of all who visit this city 
— great, colossal, faultless, but passionless and impassive 
marble. We could admire, but we could not sympathize 
or love such a being. We could never learn from his 
example, or strengthen ourselves with his experience. 
But when the Apostle reveals to us, in such utterances 
as these, his inmost heart and feelings, it is no longer 



THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL. 147 

the great Apostle we see, but the man of like passions 
with ourselves ; troubled with the same doubts, trem- 
bling with the same fears, tried by the same tempta- 
tions, craving the same sympathy, sustained by the 
same grace, his trial may be our trial, his triumph our * 
triumph. 

And now, turning our thoughts from the difficulties 
and fears of the Apostle to those who are taking part in 
this present work and the difficulties which surround 
them, let us see what was the great difficulty and trial 
which awaited the preacher of the Gospel in the days of 
Paul. What was it ? The shame of the material cross ? 
It may be doubted if this ever really hindered the 
preaching of the Apostle. If he could have preached 
circumcision, the Apostle tells us the offense of the 
cross had ceased for him as regards the Jew; and, as 
regards the Gentile, surely the fact of a shameful death 
has never hindered the world from honoring those of its 
heroes who have suffered it. Some of the names most 
honored in the world's history have been snatched from 
inscriptions upon dishonored graves. It was not, then, 
the shame of the literal cross, but something in the doc- 
trine itself which daunted the hearts of the first preach- 
ers. What was it? What is the Gospel that they 
preached ? It is this : " God so loved the world that He 
gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." That 
is the everlasting Gospel. Where lies the painful mys- 



148 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

tery which made men afraid to preach it ? For the Jew, 
the offense lay in that one word the "world." That 
God loved, not one nation, not the Jews only, but all ! 
All had equally a right to the Father's love, and a share 
'in His blessing. This was a mystery to the Jews. It 
was a new thing to them. They had always held Judea 
as the only kingdom, themselves as the only people, of 
God. They had no objection to the Gentiles being saved, 
provided they first became Jews ; but to tell them that 
the kingdom of God was as wide as the world itself 
was to offend them with the painful mystery of the 
catholicity of the faith of Christ. It was to that most 
subtile of all forms of selfishness — the narrow sectarian- 
ism of party spirit — that the Gospel of Christ proclaimed 
itself as irreconcilably hostile. It was not that Christ 
was crucified, but that He was crucified for all men, 
that offended the Jews. The catholicity of the Church 
of Christ was the secret of its offensiveness to the 
Jew. 

But, it may be said, this characteristic of the Gospel, 
if it displeased the Jews, must have pleased the Gen- 
tiles. These at least could find neither offense nor mys- 
tery in a Gospel which proclaimed them fellow-heirs, 
with the Jew, of all the loving purposes of a Father in 
heaven. Wherein, then, lay the offense of the Gospel 
for the Gentiles ? It lay in this other word, " He that 
believeth in Him shall not perish." This universal king- 
dom has a King — a law — has essential conditions of citi- 






THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL. 149 

zenship, and one of these is the absolute supremacy of its 
King. The idea of such a King was a new, a strange 
idea for the Gentiles. They had no conception of one 
God and one Lord. They had gods many, and lords 
many. They crowded into their Pantheon the many 
gods of all nations, all equally welcome, equally honored 
there. If Paul would have been content to preach 
Christ only as one new occupant of their Pantheon, 
then he might have taken his stand in front of those 
temples, amid whose ruins we walk to-day, and have 
preached unheard, perhaps unheeded, Jesus and the 
resurrection. 

But, had he done no more than this, we should not 
now be here among the ruins — they would be temples 
of a loving worship still. It was before the cross, up- 
lifted as the one only means of man's salvation — it was 
before the presence of the Crucified One, proclaimed as 
the one only God and Lord of men, that the idols and 
temples of the heathen crumbled into ruin. This claim 
for absolute, sole supremacy for Christ and His faith 
must have been an offensive mystery to the Gentile. It 
was not the preaching of a new god, it was the dethron- 
ing of the old. It was not the revelation of a new creed, 
it was the rejection, the denial of all other creeds, that 
offended him ; and thus the Gospel of Christ gave two- 
fold offense — to the Jew and the Gentile. By its cath- 
olicity it offended the party spirit of the Jew ; by its 
dogmatic definiteness it offended the Gentile. Its proc- 



150 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

lamation of one Father for all men offended the secta- 
rianism of the Jew; its claim for absolute submission 
offended the latitudinarianism of the Gentile. For the 
Jew it was too broad — it admitted all men ; for the 
Gentile it was too narrow — it refused to admit all 
creeds : and so it was that they who preached this 
mystery to Jew and to Gentile alike had need of a su- 
preme courage in order to preach it boldly as they ought 
to preach it. 

Brethren ! This Gospel that Paul preached is un- 
changed and unchangeable. It is the everlasting Gos- 
pel, and the human heart, to which it addresses itself, 
is still the same. The difficulty, the offense, the mys- 
tery of this Gospel, then, must be the same now as ever. 
It is so. The Gospel now, as then, offends sectarianism 
by its catholicity, offends latitudinarianism by its exclu- 
siveness. The love of God in all its fullness, as it pro- 
claims it, offends the bigot. The truth of God in its ab- 
solute supremacy, as it preaches it, offends the skeptic. 
And from each of these sources arise now, as then, 
the trial and temptation of its preacher. 

The Church of Christ is in danger now, as ever, 
from sectarianism. Was there ever a period in the 
history of the Church in which the spirit of sectarianism 
was rifer than it is at this moment, when Christendom, 
split into numberless sects, ringing with unessential 
shibboleths, seems in danger of losing altogether the 
idea of the one great world-wide kingdom of its Lord ? 






THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL. 151 

That idea — for ages a great realized fact — shattered 
first by the great schism of the East from the West, and 
then by the greater, deeper convulsion of the sixteenth 
century; needful, salutary as that was, yet perilous in 
its disintegrating tendencies — seems now but a dream. 
Sect after sect splits off on almost any pretext of sever- 
ance from the kingdom of Christ, and each claims to be 
that kingdom — some rending the robe of Christ, others 
claiming their own little patches of it as the entire and 
perfect robe itself— and so the great kingdom of the 
Gospel is dwarfed and narrowed by each sectarian 
leader within the petty limits of his school, his party, 
his following, until the world asks in scornful derision, 
" What and where is this kingdom of Christ of which 
you tell us you are, each of you, the representatives and 
teachers ? " 

On the other hand, the Gospel, by its definite, dog- 
matic teaching, by its demand for a belief in a person 
concerning whose nature and attributes it makes a direct 
and dogmatic revelation, offends what men are pleased 
to call the liberal and enlightened spirit of the age — 
offends that careless skepticism which loves to say it is 
no matter what our creed may be, provided our life be 
right ; which sneers at dogmas, and denounces creeds as 
fetters on the liberty of human thought ; which would 
give to every form of religious thought a contemptuous 
admission to its Pantheon of human opinions, as all alike 
true, or alike false, and all equally indifferent — a skep- 



152 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

ticism which, extending from faith to morals, grows daily 
harder, coarser, more materialistic, more selfishly luxuri- 
ous, more base and vile, in its undisguised Nature-wor- 
ship. Against the spirit of the age the teacher of Chris- 
tianity has to contend now — as earnestly as did its first 
teachers— for the faith once delivered to the saints. 
Now, as then, the Christian teacher finds himself, there- 
fore, opposed by, opposed to, those two strong currents 
of human thought and feeling — the narrowness of the 
sectarian, the indifference of the skeptic. Now, as then, 
must he proclaim as against the one, the love of God in 
all its catholic fullness, and as against the other, the truth 
of God in all its dogmatic and definite preciseness. Now 
as then, the preacher is exposed to the temptations in- 
herent in such a position. He is exposed to the tempta- 
tion to please men rather than to serve them. He is 
tempted by the desire for popularity, the wish for suc- 
cess, the dread of offense which all preachers, all teach- 
ers, are exposed to. And if he rises superior to this, 
and preaches the Gospel boldly as he ought to speak, 
he, too, may suffer martyrdom: not the martyrdom of 
the arena, where the Christian looked his last on a crowd 
of unpitying faces gloating over his death-agonies; but 
a scarcely less terrible martyrdom, where the brave, out- 
spoken witness for the truth looks around upon that 
dread circle of society which surrounds each one of us— 
and whose frown or smile can awe or tempt the bravest 
among us— and sees only contempt, hostility, impatient 



THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL. 153 

dislike, and hears the angry cry of denunciation that has 
in it no indistinct echo of the old cry of " Christiani 
ad leones / " 

He has to withstand, too, the subtiler, deadlier temp- 
tation to make, not himself, but his message popular, 
to win acceptance for the Gospel by concealing some of 
its more offensive features ; to preach less than the full- 
ness of its catholicity in order to win the sectarian; 
less than the fullness of its dogmatic truth in order to 
conciliate the skeptic. He has to incur, too, the risk 
of the secret sympathy of his own mind and heart with 
the errors he contends against, the infectiousness of the 
disease he deals with imperiling the physician. How 
much, then, does he need the gift of courage and bold- 
ness to preach the Gospel as he ought to preach it ; 
how much need has he to ask, as the first Apostle did, 
" And for me, that utterance may be given to me ! " 

We ask you this day, in welcoming your pastor to 
his new position among you, we ask- you to offer up 
your prayers for him that he may faithfully and boldly 
preach the Word of God. You who attend here during 
this week, and who may be inclined to listen with some- 
thing of curiosity and of criticism to the different 
preachers as they succeed each other, remember that he 
is to be your teacher and pastor in this place ; pray for 
him that he may be a faithful pastor, a wise and fearless 
teacher. I am not here to-day to warn or exhort him ; 
that is the duty of him who is set over him, in the Lord, 






154 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

as his Chief Pastor and Bishop. I am here to-day but 
to testify to you — and I bear that testimony with a glad 
and affectionate sincerity — the hearty and sisterly affec- 
tion with which the Church of England regards that 
American Church which is represented here to-day ; to 
tell you, our American brethren, how truly and deeply 
we in England sympathize with you in your trials or 
your triumphs, your prosperity or your difficulty, and 
how we rejoice to know that year by year the ties that 
bind us together are strengthening and multiplying ; to 
tell you how heartily we wish and pray you success in 
the name of the Lord. 

I give, then — I have no right to give pastoral charge 
or direction to my brother, your pastor in this place — 
rather would I, placing myself beside him as a brother 
minister of the Gospel, plead for him with you, for the 
help of your prayers and your sympathy. Here is surely 
a place where those difficulties and temptations of which 
I have spoken speciaUy beset the pastor ; here, where 
the spirit of the mightiest and most imposing form of 
sectarianism the world has ever known still reaches out, 
though from a shattered throne, a sceptre of dominion 
over two hundred millions of the human race ; here, 
where the schisms and divisions of Reformed Christen- 
dom are not unknown, in their weakening, hindering 
effect ; here, where even the force of social custom and 
opinion, intensified by the smallness of the area in which 
in acts, must be a great and a cruel danger and trial; 



THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL. 155 

here, where the pastor needs assuredly a double meas- 
ure of wisdom, of faith, of courage ; here we commend 
your pastor to your love and to your prayers. Pray for 
him, pray for your pastor that he may preach before 
you the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its fullness, in all 
its truth, boldly as he ought to speak it who speaks for 
Christ to those for whom Christ has died. 



156 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 



THE CHUECH CATHOLIC. 

BY THE EIGHT EEVEREND THE LOED BISHOP OF GIB- 
EALTAE. 

Monday, March 21th, 10 a. m. 

" And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and 
from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the 
Kingdom of God." — Luke xiii. 29. 

Whei* Christ appeared upon earth, He came not 
merely to fan into a more vigorous flame the religious 
affections within the heart of man, nor to make known 
to the world truths of which it was previously ignorant. 
He came to found a Kingdom. In one of the earliest 
notices which we have of His ministry, it is said of Him, 
that He went about all the cities and villages teaching 
in the synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the King- 
dom. " Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," 
was the burden of His message, as it had been of His 
great forerunner. The same message was committed to 
the Apostles. The Gospel which at their first mission 
they were charged to preach is called the Gospel of the 
Kingdom. And so at the close of His public ministry, 
when Jesus was returning to His Father in heaven, He 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 157 

delivers this commission to His Apostles, " I appoint 
unto you a Kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto 
Me." To qualify them for this charge, as we are told, 
Jesus showed Himself alive to His Apostles after His 
passion by many infallible proofs, " being seen of them 
forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the 
Kingdom of God." 

If we would understand the real nature of that 
Kingdom which Christ came to establish upon earth, we 
must read the Sermon on the Mount, and other dis- 
courses and parables of our Lord, in which He sets forth 
its laws and constitution, and shows who are fit to be 
citizens, what graces they must cultivate, what princi- 
ples they must embody in their lives. We learn from 
these passages that it is a society spiritual in its very 
essence, having its foundation in the heart, thoughts, 
and will of man, in our moral and spiritual nature. It 
is no mere earthly organization ; though, for the sake of 
its members who are in the world, it is ever calling such 
into life, yet it is above and beyond all these. It is a 
society united by spiritual bonds, and designed for the 
great spiritual end of introducing the reign of righteous- 
ness, purity, truth, and peace upon earth, of reestab- 
lishing the throne of God in the heart of man. 

The Church of Christ and the Kingdom of Christ are 
but different names for the same thing. Throughout the 
New Testament we find the expressions used as synony- 
mous. From this it follows that, whatever attributes are 



158 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

represented in Holy Scripture as characteristic of Christ's 
Kingdom, are characteristic also of His Church. 

Now, there is one special attribute of this King- 
dom, or Church, upon which I desire to dwell to-day. 
It is that brought before us in the words which I have 
chosen for my text : " And they shall come from the east, 
and from the west, and from the north, and from the 
south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God." The 
Kingdom is here described as a society world-wide in 
its comprehensiveness. Unlike the kingdoms of this 
earth, the Kingdom which Christ came to found is not 
limited, as we in our narrow thoughts are apt to limit 
it, to any one particular people, to any one particular 
place, to any one particular time ; but is as comprehen- 
sive as the human race, coextensive with God's universe. 
In a word, it is Catholic — Catholic in the widest, fullest, 
deepest, truest sense of that term. 

There is no word w T hich is so often misused as this 
word catholic. We sometimes hear it applied to the 
Church of some particular place, as to that Church whose 
chief bishop resides in this ancient city. We sometimes 
hear it applied to the Church of some particular time, as 
to the Church of the middle ages. Men talk of reviving 
Catholic usage, Catholic tradition, Catholic doctrine ; and 
when we inquire into the meaning of their words, we 
find that they are speaking of mediaeval usage, mediaeval 
tradition, mediaeval doctrine. We owe to mediaeval 
days many a saint and worthy, many a magnificent ca- 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 159 

thedral, many a famous work of art. They were the 
golden age of monasticism, the golden age of priestly 
authority ; but they were not the golden age of the 
Church's Catholic life, if of that life purity of faith, 
spirituality of worship, peace and good-will, judgment, 
mercy, and truth, are essential elements. A still more 
remarkable abuse of the term is supplied by the popular 
parlance of this country. In Italy, at the present day, 
the word denotes the adherents of a particular political 
party. Now, as we all know, the word catholic means 
universal. Thus we speak of the Catholic Epistles of St. 
Peter, St. James, and St. John, signifying by the term 
that they are not addressed to particular persons or par- 
ticular congregations, but to Christians generally, to the 
whole body of God's people. We speak also of the 
Catholic Faith, denoting by the phrase those great truths 
which are accepted by all Christendom, by the universal 
Church, as distinguished from those particular formulas 
of belief which individual Churches have deemed it ex- 
pedient to compile, either in protest against errors by 
which at any time the truth may have been assailed, or 
in vindication of doctrines which at any time may have 
seemed in danger of being forgotten. 

Now, in what senses is the term catholic applicable 
to that spiritual Kingdom which Christ established upon 
earth ? 

It is applicable in many senses. In the first place, 
the Kingdom, or Church, of Christ is Catholic, as being 



160 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

independent of national differences. The bonds of rela- 
tionship which unite its members to their Lord, and in 
Him to one another, being spiritual, depending upon no 
accidents of place or outward circumstance, but on the 
state of the heart or will, wherever there is a heart that 
believes God's truth, a will that obeys God's law, there is 
Christ's Kingdom. The Kingdom was intended by its 
Founder to include that whole world for which He died. 
As He ascended to His home in heaven, He gave His dis- 
ciples this parting charge : " Go ye and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost ; " " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved." All members 
of God's universal family were to be admitted within 
the inclosure through the one gate of baptism, and on 
the one condition of professing belief in that Name into 
which they were baptized. 

Again, the Kingdom of Christ is Catholic, as ac- 
knowledging no distinction between class and class. 
We learn from the Gospels that there is a welcome for 
Zaccheus, who was chief among the publicans and was 
rich, for the nobleman of Capernaum, for Joseph, the 
honorable counselor, for Nicodemus, the teacher of 
Israel ; no less was there a welcome for Lazarus, who 
was laid at the rich man's gate, full of sores, and for 
the poor widow who cast into the treasury two mites, 
which were all her living. The king is represented in 



TEE CHOICE CATHOLIC. 1 ■ \ 

the parable as sending forth his servants into the high- 
ways and hedges, into the streets and lanes of the city, 
ige that they are to bid as many as they 

can find, the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind, 
that his house may be filled. There is a welcome 
within the Kingdom for the waifs and strays which no 
sect will own, for all who labor and are heavy h 
the bruised reed and the smoking flax, for the woman of 
Samaria, for Mary Magdalene, foi the humble, broken- 
spirited publican, for the penitent thief, for the outcast 
but now reclaimed prodigal, who. having wasted Lis sub- 
stance in riotous living, returns in repentance to his 
Father's house. 

It was not at once that the Apostles comprehended 
the true nature of this catholicity. Though they had 
been commissioned by their Lord, as He was ascending 
into heaven, to be witnesses unto Him in Samaria, and 
unto the uttermost part of the earth, though, in His first 
sermon on the great day of Pentecost, St. Peter dis- 
tinctly asserts the universal spread of the Kingdom, 
taking for his text the prophecy of Joel that, in these 
lest Says, God's Spirit should be poured upon all fl 
without reference to age, sex. rank, or nation, yet a spe- 
cial vision was needed to convince ti A s He tc the He- 
brews th hurch which he was to assist in planting 
was to be a fellowship for man as man. a fellowship 
which should receive all comers, asking no questions, 
allowing no impediments, a fellowship in which none 



162 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

should be called common or unclean. We read in the 
Acts of the Apostles how, after the vision, barrier after 
barrier, which national, social, and religious exclusive- 
ness had erected between man and man, was thrown 
down, and the way gradually paved for the acceptance 
of that great principle so constantly urged by St. Paul, 
that in the Church of Christ there is neither Jew nor 
Gentile, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither 
male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus. All 
who acknowledge one God as their Father, one Christ as 
their Redeemer, one Holy Ghost as the spring of their 
inner life, whatever be the difference of nation, class, or 
outward circumstance, together form one universal broth- 
erhood, which is the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. 
The Kingdom is as Catholic as the heart of its Founder, 
Who was no respecter of persons, but admitted all alike 
to His presence. It is as comprehensive as that love, 
the breadth and length, the depth and height of which 
passeth knowledge. 

Christ's Kingdom, again, is Catholic, as confining 
itself to no single type of character, but including in its 
collective graces every form of goodness which adorns, 
elevates, ennobles our common humanity. There is a 
home there for the glowing impetuosity of a St. Peter, 
for the loving contemplativeness of a St. John, for the 
self-sacrificing energy of a St. Paul, for a Mary sitting 
at the feet of Jesus, for a Martha cumbered with much 
serving. There is a home there for those who are reso- 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 163 

lute in defending the right and the true ; and for those, 
also, who cheer desolate hearts with their sympathy, 
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the 
fatherless. 

If you have studied Christ's character, you must have 
noticed that it combined within itself the womanly heart 
and the manly brain, gentleness, purity, love, courage, 
justice, truth. The society which He founded He in- 
tended to be an image of Himself. It was to exhibit to 
the world, in the graces and excellences which different 
sexes, countries, and times should display, " God's idea of 
humanity completed." It was to contain the docile, the 
imaginative, the impressionable. It was to contain also 
the wise and thoughtful, the brave and resolute, the manly 
and true. In the varied phases of the conflict which the 
Kingdom has to wage with evil in the world, different 
powers and qualities are needed. Each age and country 
has its special wants and dangers. To arm us for the 
encounter God calls into life different types of char- 
acter. But, however much these forms of excellence 
may differ in outward expression, being all creations 
of God's Holy Spirit, types of the Divine life, they all 
find a recognition and welcome in Christ's universal 
Kingdom. 

There have existed from the very earliest days within 
the pale of Christ's Church, and doubtless will exist until 
the present scene shall have passed away, different 
schools of religious thought, sometimes working har- 



164 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

moniously together, sometimes working apart, and scarce- 
ly recognizing each other as brethren. According to 
differences of nationality, mental disposition, special ex- 
perience, early training, outward circumstance, men 
naturally give greater or less prominence to different 
portions of God's truth. In harmony with her character 
as Catholic, the Church permits within reasonable limits 
differences of usage and opinion, such as must exist 
where liberty is enjoyed, and men are not mere repeti- 
tions of one and the same type. 

Once more : the Kingdom of Christ is a Catholic or 
universal Kingdom, as being independent of differences 
in external polity. With a view to preserve the truths, 
powers, and privileges with which it is intrusted, the 
Kingdom of Christ gives birth to many an outward con- 
stitution, varying in form according as national character 
or circumstances vary, yet in its true nature and essence 
the Kingdom is independent of all mere outward or earth- 
ly institutions. They are but the framework, not the 
spirit. At one time we see the Church repudiated 
by the powers of the world, at another time we see her 
made part of a nation's polity. The externals of eccle- 
siastical government, so far as they have their origin in 
man, and are not definitely prescribed in Holy Scripture, 
may be changed by man as his wants and circumstances 
demand, yet the Church of Christ preserves her conti- 
nuity under change of outward form. In some countries 
it is thought that the influence of religion is most widely 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 165 

spread, the name of God most highly honored, the 
rights of conscience, both lay and clerical, most safely 
guarded, when Church and State are blended together 
into one body politic. Elsewhere men are of a different 
mind, maintaining that ever since the day when Chris- 
tianity was accepted as the national religion by Con- 
stantine, and the Church enrolled herself among the 
political powers of the world, she has suffered both in her 
freedom of action and in her spirituality of character, and 
that the only way to secure religious liberty either for 
Churches or for individuals is absolute severance from 
the civil power. Different as may be our opinions on 
this question, if we are consistent lovers of liberty, we 
must allow that each country should be left free to follow 
that system which accords best with her own distinctive 
character, and which experience teaches to be for the 
good of her people. 

The Kingdom of Christ is Catholic as covering the 
whole area of human thought and duty. Whatever be the 
relation which Church and State may hold to one another 
in any country, there can be no doubt that the doctrines, 
principles, and powers, of which the Lord made His 
Church the depositary, were meant by Him to influence, 
raise, redeem, and sanctify, the whole life of man, not his 
moral and spiritual life only, but also that public life in 
which all loyal citizens have their special parts to take. 
It is a false spirituality which would confine religion to 
the sanctity of church and cloister, or to the privacy of 






166 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS, 

our own homes. Religion is in the widest and fullest 
sense for life and life's duties. There are Churches in the 
present day which withdraw more and more from modern 
interests : stationary themselves, they would prevent their 
people from advancing ; unable to control the thought 
of the world, they place it under their ban. But, if the 
Church of Christ be true to her character as Catholic, 
instead of thus standing aloof from the thought and 
movement of these modern times, she will endeavor to 
bring them under her influence ; toward the culture and 
civilization of the world she will assume an attitude of 
friendly and helpful interest ; she will foster the spirit of 
enterprise, the diffusion of enlightenment, the enthusiasm 
of progress. In place of curbing those mental powers 
which God has given to His people, she will seek to call 
them into free, vigorous, and healthy activity, adapting 
herself to the wants of each changing age, welcoming 
light from whatever quarter it may come, and furthering 
every effort to expand, enlarge, enrich, and elevate the life 
of mankind. That tendency which prevails in the pres- 
ent day, and is working untold mischief in this very 
country, of separating human life into two distinct and 
antagonistic spheres, the religious and the secular, the 
spiritual and the temporal, the Church and the world, 
finds no countenance in the teaching of Him Who, when 
He founded His Kingdom, declared that its principles 
were to change the principles of the world, like salt pre- 
serving it from corruption, like leaven pervading its in- 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 167 

stitutions, like the mustard-seed gradually spreading and 
overshadowing the land. 

Christ's Kingdom, lastly, is Catholic, as being con- 
tinuous* through all ages. It includes the good of all 
times, those who are now fighting with evil upon earth, 
and those who have entered upon their rest in Paradise. 
It is a fellowship binding heaven and earth together — a 
brotherhood of manifold diversities, gathering into itself 
all that earth ever held of good, noble, and true. 

In these words I have been unfolding the meaning 
of that attribute of Christ's Kingdom which we express 
whenever, as we repeat the Creed, we say, " I believe 
in the Holy Catholic Church." Let me now set before 
you, as briefly as I can, the main causes through which 
the full accomplishment of this ideal of a Catholic 
Church has been frustrated. They are two in number. 
Men accustomed to the political forms and associations 
of an earthly country, have carried their views and hab- 
its into the spiritual Kingdom of Christ. We must have, 
it is urged, the same usages, the same forms and cere- 
monies, the same system of government. So unspiritual 
are the minds of mankind, that they find it difficult to 
apprehend anything purely spiritual. Just as the Israel- 
ites rejected God as their King, because He went not 
forth visibly with their armies to the battle, so a large 
portion of the Christian world, not content with the 
unseen governance of Christ, demands that the Church's 
unity should be exhibited in an earthly visible sovereign, 
8 



168 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

who should be an infallible oracle, a supreme judge of 
mankind in all matters of faith and morals, an incarnate 
representative of God upon earth. Thus the grand 
attempt is made by Rome to organize all men into one 
kingdom, under one ecclesiastical system. In the two- 
fold hope of suppressing heresy and of subjugating 
that brute force which was deluging Europe with blood, 
the idea was formed by the greatest of Rome's pontiffs 
of establishing a sacerdotal monarchy, which should 
give law to all the temporal powers of the world. The 
Pope was to be suzerain of Christendom ; all kings, 
princes, and prelates, were to be his liegemen and vas- 
sals* He was to be the universal arbiter, with authority 
to command the arms of all nations to enforce his man- 
dates. A sublime conception ! But not the conception 
that was in the mind of Him Who said, " My Kingdom 
is not of this world." 

The imposition of dogmas on matters left undefined 
in Holy Scripture has limited to a still greater degree 
the comprehensiveness of the Church. If ecclesiastics 
had been content to enforce nothing to be believed as 
necessary to salvation beyond what can be proved by 
most certain warrant of Holy Writ, Christendom might 
still be united. But the attempt has been made to de- 
fine what is undefinable, to reason upon matters about 
which we can know nothing except what is expressly 
revealed. Truths which the spirit of man alone can dis- 
cern, the heart alone appreciate, have been turned into 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 169 

hard, precise definitions by the cold, clear, logical facul- 
ty ; and the result has been, that divisions and feuds 
have been created, which even the most sanguine de- 
spair of seeing healed. More than this, the Church, 
forgetful of her Master's spirit, has called down fire from 
heaven. Eternal condemnation has been denounced on 
all who fail to accept every statement of her formularies. 
Eastern and Western Patriarchs for years hurled anathe- 
mas at each other, because they could not come to one 
mind upon a mystery which is among the most abstruse 
that have ever engaged human thought. The Creed of 
the largest Church in Christendom has appended to each 
of its clauses, many of which are not only beyond what 
is written in God's Word, but are at variance both with 
its letter and its spirit, the monstrous formula, " If any 
man think otherwise, let him be accursed ! " 

But if this greatest of historical cities calls to mind 
pretensions by which the catholicity of Christ's King- 
dom has been impaired, the solemn service in which 
representatives of two great sister Churches have just 
been engaged proclaims that forces are now at work to 
restore what others have destroyed, to make what others 
have marred. By the bounty of a gracious Providence 
England and America have opportunities of extending 
the Church of Christ, such as have never been given be- 
fore to any other people. They speak a common tongue, 
which is known wherever commerce finds its way, and 
which, in* the opinion of many thoughtful minds, promises 



170 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

to be one day the language not only of the New "World, 
but also of all civilized humanity. The one country is 
mistress of the seas, the first among industrial and com- 
mercial nations, covering the globe with her sons. The 
sister country has a population which already has reached 
the number of forty-five millions, and which is increas- 
ing with bewildering rapidity. The extent and position 
of America give her opportunities, which she is not 
slow to use, of developing national life upon a colossal 
scale. Already she has won among the first nations of 
the earth a place second only to England, if second to 
her, in material prosperity and commercial enterprise. 
A giant even in her infancy, she is rich with possibili- 
ties quite incalculable. 

These resources were bestowed upon the two na- 
tions not simply for purposes of personal or national 
aggrandizement. God surely intends that we should 
employ them to make His Kingdom spread more widely, 
and strike more deeply into the heart and conscience 
of mankind. We have to show to the world that a 
Church need not break with the past, because she lives 
in the present ; need not discard primitive order and 
discipline, because she upholds the right of private judg- 
ment ; need not forego her place as part of the one 
Catholic Church, because she asserts her own indepen- 
dence, and claims to perform her share of the common 
work in that way which best expresses her individual 
character. We have to show to the world that a Church 



THE CHURCH CATHOLIC. 



171 



which rests on the old foundation of apostolic usage, 
which grounds her teaching upon Holy Scripture, which 
has a Prayer-Book yielding in antiquity to no manual 
used by any other community, which has a ministry or- 
ganized on primitive precedent, may yet grow with the 
world's growth, meet the demands of modern thought, 
ally herself with progress, travel in company with civil- 
ization. 

In the development of our Church's Catholic life, the 
clergy and congregation of this noble house of prayer, 
which we have just seen consecrated within the walls 
of Rome, will have an important part to play. May 
God's Holy Spirit enable you, my brethren in Christ, 
to perform your part with the zeal, wisdom, courage, 
and consistency, which befit men who are as a city set 
upon a hill, and who feel that their acts are scanned 
by no very friendly eyes ! You have the responsibility 
of showing, in concert with your English brethren, what 
the principles, doctrines, and worship of our Reformed 
Church really are, when they are displayed in their true 
colors. You have the privilege of restoring to Rome a 
Christianity free from those errors and superstitions which 
the course of ages has gathered — a Christianity large 
and tolerant in its charity, pure and dignified in its forms 
of worship, sound and reasonable in its doctrine — a 
Christianity like to that which the great Apostle to the 
Gentiles delivered to the Church of this city during the 
two years when, as we read, he " preached the Kingdom 



172 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

of God, and taught those things which concern the Lord 
Jesus." 

If you are faithful in the discharge of this work, the 
life and enlightenment of which your Church will be the 
source will not be confined to members of your own 
communion. By the true doctrine which you preach, 
and the example of devotion which you set, you may 
possibly promote a reformation within the Church of 
Rome herself. You may be the means of dispelling many 
a darkness, clearing away many a corruption, healing 
many a breach ; and so prove instruments in God's hands 
for hastening the advent of that day, for which all loyal 
hearts are yearning, when once more the members of 
Christ's Catholic Church shall be all of one mind and 
one heart, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, 
of faith and charity. 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 173 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 

BY THE EEV. LOED PLUNKET. 

Tuesday, March 2&th, 10 a. m. 

" One God and Father of all." — Ephesians iv. 6. 

I pukpose this morning to speak about the unity 
which ought to exist among the members of the visible 
Catholic Church. The subject is beset with many diffi- 
culties. From my heart, therefore, I would now take 
up the key-note so happily struck on last Sunday by the 
preacher, and ask your secret prayers, dear brethren, 
for me — even me, also — that I may speak wisely and 
" boldly, as I ought to speak." 

Truth, brethren, is not a picture, to be seen from one 
side only. Rather it is a statue, which must be gone 
round about, and surveyed from many points of view, 
if we are to estimate its full proportions and appreciate 
its perfect loveliness. This may seem a trite remark; 
and yet, if this principle had been generally recognized 
in troublous times gone by, the world would have been 
saved from much bloodshed — the Church from many a 
schism ! 

Take, for example, the great truth embodied in my 



174 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

text — a truth which underlies every form of religion 
that deserves the name — the truth of God's Fatherhood. 
In how many aspects may we not contemplate this 
eternal verity ! 

When we look up to God on high as the great 
Creator and Preserver of mankind, " who hath made of 
one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face 
of the earth " — the God " in whom we live and move and 
have our being," we need no poet to tell us — our hearts 
tell it — that " we are His offspring." As members of the 
great brotherhood of humanity we belong to His family 
— a family embracing those who are afar off, and those 
who are near — a family consisting of all, whether just 
or unjust, upon whom He maketh the blessed rain from 
heaven to fall — a family with every member of which, 
it will be found, in that great day, that He has dealt 
righteously and tenderly, even as a father who pitieth 
his own children. And when we further regard this 
world-wide love of God the Father for His children in 
the light of the Gospel, what a new flood of glory then 
streams in upon that truth ! When we remember that 
God so loved the world that He sent His only beloved 
Son to be the propitiation for the sins of all — when we 
think of Him who thus tasted death for every man — and 
who in the character, as it were, of an elder brother de- 
clares that He is not ashamed to call us brethren — when 
we think, I say, of Him who, by thus taking upon Him 
our flesh, raised up the whole human family to the un- 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 175 

speakable dignity of fellowship with Himself as sons of 
God — oh, then we begin to recognize something more 
of the deep meaning of those simple words, " one God 
and Father of all ! " 

Thus far we have contemplated the great truth of 
God's Fatherhood from our standpoint as members of 
the brotherhood of humanity. Let us now regard the 
same truth from another point of view — even as members 
of Christ's visible Church. Here we find ourselves look- 
ing up to God not only as a Father who has created, 
preserved, and redeemed us, and who, in sending His 
Son to die for us, has spread out before us for our ac- 
ceptance glorious promises of a nearer adoption in Him, 
but also as a Father who has brought us into a new state 
of covenant relation with Himself. When we look back 
— as we so often ought to do — on our admission into that 
Church by baptism, do we not see our heavenly Father 
visibly signing and sealing in His own appointed rite, 
before the assembled Church, those promises of adoption 
which were indeed in one sense ours before, but which 
till then had not been formally ratified ? What though 
some of us may hesitate to believe that any mystic 
and sudden transformation of our nature then took place 
— what though some of us may doubt whether a Father's 
angry frown was then in one moment of time exchanged 
for a Father's loving smile — what though we may regard 
our Saviour as having then taken us into His arms 
— not in order that we might be of His Kingdom — but 



176 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

because like those whom He embraced on earth we were 
of His Kingdom already — as to such points, there may 
perhaps be a difference of opinion. But may we not all 
look back and join in believing that our heavenly Father 
then looked down from above upon each one of us, and 
said, as it were, before the Church and the world at large, 
" This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased ! " 
May we not all thus look back, and teach others to look 
back, upon that solemn event as the occasion on which 
we were thus born again, as it were, into a new world 
of privileges and means of grace, as a day when we were 
admitted within the doors of that visible Church where a 
Father provides for his children all that is necessary to 
sustain their spiritual life ; a Church wherein the Spirit 
supernaturally enables us " to feed upon Christ in our 
hearts by faith" in His Word, and at His appointed Feast ; 
a Church wherein are to be found milk for babes, strong 
meat for men, the bread of life for the hungry, the water 
of life for the thirsty ; and all this freely offered, with- 
out money and without price, to every one who will 
only as a loving child accept it at a Father's hands ! 
But, brethren, do all accept these offered blessings ? 
Do all these children exhibit a spirit of real sonship, and 
gladly avail themselves of a Father's gifts ? Alas, that 
I should have to say it — the many do not ! It is only the 
few that do ! And it is only they who do that can be 
said to have appropriated, in all the fullness of its mean- 
ing, the unspeakable blessedness of a heavenly Father's 






CATHOLIC UNITY. 177 

love. They only can claim to be — not only in name, but 
in very truth — His children, His true family; yes, I 
shrink not to add, His true Church ! 

And if this be so, then are we not clearly brought at 
once to the contemplation of God's Fatherhood from a 
fresh point of view, even as it is realized by those whose 
sonship consists in something more than a state of privi- 
lege, or show of profession ; even by those of whom it is 
said, " As many as are led by the Spirit, they are the 
sons of God ; " even by those who have so received the 
spirit of adoption as to be able to cry with upward- 
yearning hearts, "Abba, Father!" Of these, indeed, 
alone can it be said, in the full, and therefore true, sense 
of the word, that they have been born into the family of 
God. For not only has the gift of sonship been be- 
queathed to them in common with all mankind by a dy- 
ing Redeemer — not only has it been sealed to them in 
common with all the baptized, but through personal faith 
in that Redeemer the gift has been by them appropriated 
as their own, and they have thereby become entitled to 
claim their portion among those of whom it is said, 
" As many as received Him, to them gave He power to 
become the sons of God, even as many as believed on 
His name ! " 

And this leads us to consider one remaining point 
of view from which to regard this truth — a standpoint 
where, if I mistake not, the true child of God will love 
to linger longest, and whence he will most often rivet 



178 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

his gaze, as it were, upon a Father's countenance. I 
speak of that surpassing excellency of fatherly love 
that reveals itself to the penitent and believing child of 
God — when separating himself for the while from the 
din and tumult of controversy without — and ceasing for 
the moment to perplex himself with questions as to God's 
dealings with the world, the Church, or the elect, he 
goes, as it were, all alone into that inner shrine of per- 
sonal communion with a personal God — even into the 
presence of the only true Confessor — that secret place 
of God's pavilion where there is no room for any save 
the child and the Father, and none other to see or tell 
what there takes place ! Are there none here who know 
what I mean ; who know what it is — when bowed down 
beyond measure with the intolerable burden of their 
shortcomings and misdoings and doubts and perplexi- 
ties — to go straight into the presence of their God and 
say, " Father, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and 
before Thee, make me as one of Thy hired servants ! " 
Are there not some here, I know there are, who at such 
a moment have realized that overwhelming sense of a 
Father's forgiving love and tender care which the prodi- 
gal must have experienced when, looking up through 
blinding tears, he saw a father's look of compassion, and 
felt a father's fond embrace ! 

And now, brethren, I have made to pass before you 
some out of the many aspects in which the great truth 
of the Fatherhood of God may present itself to His 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 179 

children. Oh, how good a thing it would be, would it 
not, if we were to accustom ourselves to survey this 
truth from these many points of view ! Then indeed 
might we think of God's fatherly love for all mankind 
without adopting the theories of the latitudinarian or 
the universalist. Then might we recognize to the full 
those promises of a closer sonship which were signed 
and sealed to us in baptism, as well as those further 
tokens of a Father's care which are provided for us with- 
in the visible Church, without the danger of lapsing into 
sacramentalism or formalism. Then might we contem- 
plate the special love of the Father for those who are 
led by His Spirit to make those privileges their own, 
without investing that Father with the attribute of ca- 
pricious favoritism, or appalling our minds with the 
thought of a ghastly fatalism. Then, too, might we 
realize fearlessly the blessed consciousness of our own 
personal sonship in Christ, without allowing such a con- 
viction to degenerate into a form of mean and selfish 
individualism. 

But my special motive in having thus, even at such 
length, dwelt upon the manifold aspect of this heaven- 
born truth, is the desire to apply it to the question 
upon which I must speak in the short time which still 
remains at my disposal — the unity, I mean, which should 
prevail among God's children regarded in one of these 
aspects — namely, as members of Christ's visible Church. 
That this is a question to which such a corrective needs 



180 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

specially to be applied I shall, I think, be able very 
clearly to prove. 

Were I, for example, to advocate the cause of Church 
unity in such a manner as to lead you to ignore that 
wider brotherhood which binds together all mankind as 
children of a common father ; were I so to concentrate 
your attention upon the privileged circle of the visible 
Church as to withdraw your sympathies from those who, 
alas ! are still without its doors — but for whom, never- 
theless, Christ died — I should be only telling you half the 
truth, and might end, perhaps, by insulating and sectari- 
anizing the noblest outgoings of your hearts. But when 
I remind you that one of the chief and most constraining 
motives for desiring this exhibition of brotherly love 
among professing Christians is to be found in the hope 
that those who are without may be compelled again to 
say — as was said of old — " See how these Christians love 
one another," and may with God's blessing be tempted 
even by this spectacle of our unity to enter in and taste 
for themselves those privileges of sonship which belong 
to them as to us, but which in their ignorance or ob- 
stinacy they have never as yet claimed as their own 
— surely, I say, when thus representing the cause of 
Church unity, as I am bound to do, I invest it with a 
character not of heartless sectarianism, but of true catho- 
licity. 

But, again, were I to urge the necessity for unity 
within the visible Church in such a manner as to oblit- 






CATHOLIC UNITY. 181- 

erate the distinction between a merely outward profes- 
sion and an inward spiritual life ; were I thus to minimize 
the contrast between the false and the true, and to 
divert men's minds from seeking an entrance for them- 
selves and others, not merely within the number of bap- 
tized Christians, but within the inner circle of God's 
truly believing children ; were I thus to advocate unity, 
I should again be so mutilating truth and robbing it of 
its fair proportions as almost to transform it into mis- 
chievous error. 

But when I remind } 7 ou that our heavenly Father, 
who is very Love Himself, must rejoice to behold even 
its wavering and imperfect image, wherever and among 
whomsoever it may be found here below, surely I am 
supplying a special motive for those who have re- 
ceived the spirit of adoption to strive earnestly to fur- 
ther a result which must be so dear to Him. And when 
I further remind you that one of the chief objects even 
of external unity in its mission of love is to bring to- 
gether many who may have hitherto sullenly stood aloof, 
and thereby to break down hateful prejudices, and soften 
unforgiving hearts, and dispel groundless misapprehen- 
sions ; and when I add that at such a time the true child 
of God has a special opportunity for winning over the 
merely outward professor to a knowledge of the deeper 
realities of spiritual experience ; when, in fact, I ask 
you to contemplate the close relationship of outward 
unity to inward life — then I cannot help thinking that I 



182 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

have said enough to prove that Christian union within 
the visible Church has an import which the true sons of 
God should be the last to ignore, and a power which 
they should be the first to utilize ! 

Brethren, the services which are now being held in 
this newly-consecrated house of God, and in which I am 
privileged to take part, bear witness to a noble desire on 
the part of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America 
to further, with God's help, a spirit of unity such as that 
which I have just described, among the members of 
Christ's Catholic Church. Three separate branches of 
that Church — the Church of England, the Church of Ire- 
land, and the Episcopal Church of Scotland — have all 
been invited to unite for a season with the Protestant 
Episcopal Church of America in that best of all fellow- 
ships — a fellowship of prayer, and worship, and thanks- 
giving. 

In the Preface to the American Prayer Book it is 
well said that "it is a most invaluable part of that 
blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, that 
in His worship different forms and usages may without 
offence be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith 
be kept entire." Acting upon this principle, our Ameri- 
can brethren have assumed that the divergencies of form 
or usage which may exist in the ritual or government of 
the several Churches thus taking part in these special 
services are not such as ought to alienate the sympathy 
of any one of these Churches from the others, or to place 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 183 

a barrier in the way of the most cordial intercommunion 
between them all. 

This, brethren, is the true spirit of catholicity — and, 
in the results which will, I trust, flow from this effort, 
they who have been led to show such a spirit will doubt- 
less find their reward. To some of those, in this city, 
who watch these services from without, and who may 
have been hitherto accustomed to identify Christian wor- 
ship with an outward show of sensational and supersti- 
tious pageantry appealing to the ear or the eye rather than 
to the head or to the heart, the spectacle of a sober, de- 
vout, reasonable service of prayer and praise with all that 
scriptural and primitive purity, that chasteness of beauty 
and dignity of simplicity which characterize the ritual 
of this newly-consecrated church, may perchance awaken 
the inquiry, whether there may not be, after all, some 
halting-place between the religion of the Church of Rome 
and the ghastly alternative of a godless creed ; while to 
others who may perhaps have been accustomed to iden- 
tify unity and catholicity with that system of rigid pro- 
crustean uniformity into which unwilling minds are forced 
to mould themselves by the iron rule of the Papacy, and 
who have perhaps been led to believe that anything like 
unity or catholicity on the part of the Reformed Church- 
es of Christendom is simply an impossibility, the spec- 
tacle of essential unity and large catholicity displayed in 
this voluntary union of the members of many Churches in 
these solemn acts of common worship cannot but give 



184 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

rise to serious, perhaps to startling thoughts. God only 
knoweth what questionings may thus be awakened in 
many anxious yet still unsatisfied hearts ! 

And we, dear brethren, the members of the several 
Churches who have witnessed these services from within 
— must not we feel that it has been good for us, and for 
the cause of Christian unity, that we have thus been 
drawn together in bonds of holy fellowship ? 

For my own part, as a member of the Church of 
Ireland, I do, indeed, earnestly desire to tender to my 
American brethren, and more especially to the pastor of 
this congregation — whose indefatigable zeal and wide- 
reaching sympathies have done so much to bring about 
this happy result — my warmest thanks for this act of 
generous and unsolicited good-will. Nor is this the first 
exhibition of sisterly love on the part of the American 
Church for which the Church of Ireland has reason to be 
grateful. Ever since the time when we were first called 
upon to confront the dangers and difficulties that fol- 
lowed upon our separation from the state, the sympathy 
of the American Church has never seemed to falter, her 
interest in our proceedings has never seemed to flag. 
Even when at times in unexpected quarters our motives 
have been misapprehended and our actions criticised, the 
American Church has shown an intelligent appreciation 
of the exigencies of our position, and has been ever 
ready to give us credit, even more perhaps than -we de- 
served, for our endeavors to meet and overcome them. 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 185 

As a proof of what I say, and indeed as a striking type 
of that spirit of unity and sympathizing love that ought 
to bind together the Churches of Christ, I cannot re- 
frain from quoting an address (with which some of you 
may perhaps not be familiar) which was received from 
the American Bishops and House of Deputies by our 
Church, shortly after her separation from the state. I 
quote it the more gladly, because it refers to the history 
and character of my Church in terms which from my lips 
might seem to savour of boasting, but which as coming 
from others I rejoice for the honour of my Church to make 
more widely known. The address to which I refer runs 
as follows : " We beg to assure our beloved brethren 
that we have watched with solicitude and fraternal sym- 
pathy the dangerous crisis through which recent events 
have obliged them to pass, and feel that seldom have 
graver difficulties or more painful trials been imposed 
upon any branch of the Church Catholic. The Ameri- 
can Church regards it as an occasion of devout thank- 
fulness to God that they (the Church of Ireland) were 
enabled by the Holy Spirit to advance thus far, and 
with so much harmony, in effecting the permanent reor- 
ganization of the Church. The Americans are grati- 
fied, moreover, to recognize the fact that the Church 
of Ireland, while earnestly witnessing to the Faith once 
delivered to the saints, and adhering to the primitive 
and apostolical principles which form the common in- 
heritance and bond of union, has adopted a form of 



186 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

ecclesiastical organization so nearly allied to the Church 
in America. The Americans do not fail to recognize the 
wisdom of retaining the ancient historic name, 'the 
Church of Ireland,' a name recalling great memories of 
the past, and justifying the hope of an auspicious future. 
They cannot doubt that the Church which was the last 
among the Western Churches to surrender its primitive 
rights and privileges of self-government will be found 
equal to the responsibilities of its present position, and 
will, notwithstanding embarrassments arising from the 
laws of its temporalities, be able to strengthen the things 
which remain, and to recover the influence which once 
made it illustrious as a defender of evangelical truth and 
apostolical order among the Churches of Europe. 

" To these brotherly greetings are joined fervent pray- 
ers that the Church in America and the Church in Ireland 
being united in one communion and fellowship of Christ, 
may be workers together with God for the advancement 
of His glory, and the salvation of men through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." 

Glad I am, my American brethren, to have this op- 
portunity of thanking you face to face for these kindly 
words of trust, encouragement, and affection — so cheer- 
ing to us in our hour of trial — and glad too am I to add 
that the prayers and hopes expressed in your message 
seem, thank God, to be even already meeting with their 
fulfilment. The dangers that have necessarily surrounded 
our path are becoming less and less day by day. We 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 187 

have but little fear now of disruption ; we do not dread 
a collapse from want of Church funds. A spirit of mu- 
tual concession has saved us from the one, a spirit of 
growing self-sacrifice has saved us from the other. The 
Irish Church has not assumed the attitude of a men- 
dicant in her distress. She has not appealed to other 
Churches for help. She has relied on the voluntary 
efforts of her own members, and thank God the response 
has been such as to inspire much hope for the future. 
During the five years that have followed the withdrawal 
of state aid from our Church, her members have con- 
tributed to her Sustentation Fund an average annual 
sum of little less than a quarter of a million sterling. 
Nor have other efforts for the welfare of the Church been 
allowed to suffer loss because of this entirely new de- 
mand on the resources of her members. It is only a few 
months since, that in the Diocese of Cork — one of the 
poorest of our dioceses — a sum of thirty thousand pounds 
was contributed toward the restoration of its cathedral, 
making in all a sum of seventy thousand pounds 
received for that sole purpose within the last few 
years, and raising the total amount of funds given 
in behalf of cathedral restoration generally throughout 
Ireland, by Irish Churchmen during the last half-cen- 
tury, to a sum of little less than half a million sterling. 
Were such efforts for restoring the outward fabric 
unaccompanied with zeal for the promotion of the in- 
ward spiritual life, I should esteem them of little 



188 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

worth. But, believing as I do that in this case the 
two works go hand-in-hand, and tend each to help and 
not to hinder the other, I commend these tokens of 
active life to the notice of those who may have heard 
that Irish Churchmanship was at a low ebb. And to 
you especially, my dear American brethren, who have 
prayed and hoped on our behalf in our day of trouble, 
I make known these facts with justifiable pride and 
deep thankfulness, in order that you may know that 
your prayers have not been unheard nor your hopes 
unfulfilled. 

And now I should much like, did time permit, to 
dwell at some length upon a far larger extension of this 
principle of Christianity than even that which is so hap- 
pily evidenced in the case of those four branches of the 
Church Catholic which are at present taking part in the 
special opening services of this house of God. I should 
wish to call your attention to that grand effort for re- 
union among the separated Churches of Christendom, 
which has found expression in the recent conferences at 
Bonn, and which seems worthy to cast a sunset glory 
on the declining years of that noble theologian, Dr. 
Dollinger, by whom mainly it has been set on foot. 
I should like especially to grapple fully with some popular 
misapprehensions which seem to me to prevail as to the 
basis, the form, and the extent of the unity, aimed at by 
this effort. Time will, however, permit me to make but 
one remark as to this deeply interesting movement. 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 189 

Judging from the terms of Dr. Dftllinger's invitation 
to the last conference, as well as from the proceedings of 
that conference, at which I was present, I have arrived 
at the following conclusions. I believe the basis of unity 
aimed at by the conference to consist, not, as some sup- 
pose, in the unsubstantial dream of some hitherto un- 
formulated consensus of patristic theology, but simply 
in the well-known definitions of that ancient Confession 
of Faith which once constituted the sole bond of union 
between the Churches of Christendom, and which might, 
I believe, do so again, namely — the Niceno-Constantino- 
politan Creed, as it stood before the introduction of the 
Filioque clause. Again, I believe that the form of unity 
aimed at by this conference is intended to take the shape, 
not, as some suppose, of doctrinal fusion, but rather of 
fraternal confederation and loving intercommunion ; and, 
lastly, I believe that the extent of unity is intended, not, 
as some suppose, to be measured by Episcopalian limits, 
or by any similarly narrow bounds, but is meant to 
reach far enough to embrace all, of whatever denomina- 
tion, who will only agree to take, as a Common basis of 
union, the creed to which I have already referred. If I 
be correct in this view of the conference, then I believe 
the attempt to be in a right direction, and that it will 
not lack a blessing from above. It has tended not a 
little already to enlarge the views and widen the sym- 
pathies of many who have watched or taken part in its 
proceedings. It has awakened in many hearts yearnings 



190 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

after peace and good-will among men that can scarcely 
fail to find for themselves some ultimate expression. It 
has thus done a good work already in the past. It has, 
I trust, a better work still to do in the future. It has 
for its object the promotion of that unity within Christ's 
Catholic Church which ought, I think, to be so dear to 
every child of God, and, therefore, as it seems to me, we 
ought from our hearts to wish it success. 

And now, brethren, I may never again occupy this 
pulpit, or again enter within this house of God, but 
earnestly do I pray that the blessing of God may rest 
upon both the pastor and the congregation of this church 
in the long years to come, that to him utterance may in- 
deed be given to make known the mystery of the Gospel, 
and to speak boldly in the name of his blessed Master, 
as he ought to speak ; and that to you, as you hear the 
"Word preached and offer your sacrifices of praise and 
thanksgiving, may be given by your heavenly Father the 
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 
that you may indeed know what is the hope of His call- 
ing, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance 
in the saints. Earnestly, too, do I pray that the spirit 
of unity may ever prevail among those who may here- 
after be gathered within these walls. May the spectacle 
of this unity tempt many to come from without and join 
the family of worshipers within ; and may they who 
shall be thus joined together in unity here below enjoy 
at last the perfect consummation of unity above, as 



CATHOLIC UNITY. 191 

members of that one beatified and thenceforward indi- 
visible family of saints to whom, throughout the endless 
ages, it shall be given to know, as they never knew 
before, the full meaning of those blessed words, " one 
God and Father of all!" 



9 



192 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 



THE WITNESS OF ST. PAUL IN EOME. 

BY THE EEV. H. C. POTTEE, D. D. 
Wednesday, March 29, 1876. 

" And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of 
good cheer, Paul ; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so 
must thou bear witness also at Rome." — Acts xxiii. 11. 

These are somewhat discouraging words with which 
to raise a man's despondent spirits. As you will remem- 
ber, they follow that fearless and impassioned argument 
which the Apostle had made in behalf of his message and 
his Master, and made, as it seemed for the moment, in 
vain. Standing there in Jerusalem, on the castle-stairs, 
he had told his own story, and with it had declared the 
nature of his Lord's commission ; and, no sooner had he 
proclaimed that that commission called him to preach 
the Gospel to the Gentiles, than men who, till that 
moment, had listened to him with absorbed attention, 
spurned him from their presence, declaring that it was 
not fit that he should live. 

We know the rest: how, when he is summoned from 
this arraignment before the mob to appear at the bar 
of the Sanhedrim, he opens his lips before what ought 



THE WITNESS OF ST. PAUL IN ROME. 193 

to have been that cooler and more impartial tribunal to 
have them closed with an insult and a blow. We know 
how, by one chance word of his, his examination before 
the council is converted into a fight so fierce between its 
two opposing parties, that " the chief captain, fearing 
lest the Apostle should be torn in pieces of them," 
snatches him away from Pharisees and Sadducees alike, 
and locks him in a dungeon in the castle. Have we ever 
thought of his reflections there ? Ah ! how hard he had 
tried to bring his countrymen to understand him ! With 
what consummate wisdom, with what exhaustless pa- 
tience, with what rare and singular blending of winning 
candor and delicate reserve had he spoken his message ! 
Well, as he thought it all over — as his thin and restless 
fingers absently pressed the lips, still bruised and bleed- 
ing, it may be, with the blow which no brutal foreigner, 
but an Israelitish hand had dealt him — how do you think 
he estimated the situation ? Did this look much like suc- 
cess ? Were these the victories which the Gospel was 
to achieve ? Was he never to open his mouth for that 
Master whom he loved with such ardent and passionate 
devotion without rousing the fires of human resentment, 
and kindling anew the dying embers of a sectarian ani- 
mosity ? It is easy to say that the Apostle had counted 
the cost beforehand, and understood that his preaching 
would provoke official opposition and personal insult. 
I presume he had ; but I imagine that he had some hu- 
man sensibilities to be wounded and cast down, and I 



194 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

venture to think that we do not understand him any 
better, but rather worse, by lifting him in our ordinary 
conceptions of him to a pedestal where no disheartening 
experiences could touch or depress him. And so I think 
that just at this point he may easily have been profoundly 
disheartened. And what was there in the message that 
came to him, when that night the Lord stood by him, to 
cheer and reassure him ? "Be of good cheer, Paul, for 
as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou 
bear witness also in Rome." 

The words present the two imperial cities in suggestive 
contrast. We have seen what Jerusalem was, and that 
of which the events of this twenty-third chapter of the 
Acts do not directly remind us may readily be recalled. 
It is the sixtieth year of the Christian era. Israel is a 
province of Rome, and Jerusalem is a conquered capital. 
Here and there the message of the Cross has won a hand- 
ful of disciples, but on the whole Judaism is as haughty, 
as scornful, as unrelenting in its animosity to the truth 
of Christ, as when it nailed the Saviour to the cross. 
Nay, the loss of their civil power seems only to have made 
the Israelitish priesthood more resolute and more tena- 
cious in the maintenance of their national faith. If they 
drew their sacerdotal cordon round a more contracted 
circle of sovereignty, they maintained those religious 
peculiarities which that cordon inclosed with a perti- 
nacity all the more inflexible. } There is nothing grander 
in apostolic history than those two defenses of the Apos- 



THE WITNESS OF ST. PAUL IN ROME. 195 

tie's which immediately precede the text. And yet how 
impotent they seemed to have been ! The man has 
spoken with his whole heart in his message, and with 
his whole soul, eager, nay, on fire with his lofty purpose, 
looking out of his eyes. And the end of it is the wild 
clamor of a mob ; and, a little later, the infuriated dis- 
sensions of rival sects. It is at such a moment that he 
is bidden to be of good cheer — of good cheer, as he lies 
there in a felon's cell, bound and smitten because, as he 
had testified of Christ at Jerusalem, so must he bear 
witness of Him at Rome. Verily, as I began by saying, 
these are somewhat strange words with which to raise a 
man's despondent spirits. 

For, if we know what Jerusalem was in the year of 
our Lord 60, we know equally well what Rome was. 
It was midway in the reign of Nero. Stained as were 
both emperor and court with crime, there was as yet no 
decadence of Rome's imperial power. The riches that 
she had snatched from the coffers of conquered nations 
still glittered in her palaces, and went to enrich her sena- 
tors and captains. There had been great cruelty in her 
conquests, but there was still splendid organization in 
her armies, and not yet wholly decayed or impotent were 
those great ideas of law as regulating private license 
and dominating individual caprice, which had done so 
much to lift her into her place as mistress of the world. 
It is true that her people were more tolerant of religious 
diversities than the Jew, but it was the toleration of 



196 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

contempt, or, at least, the liberality of indifferentism. 
In the Pantheon were the deities of every land and the 
shrines of every faith, and, if he could care to, the Apostle 
knew that he would be permitted to rear there an altar 
even to the despised Nazarene. But none knew better 
than this trained Hebrew scholar — pupil sometime at the 
feet of Gamaliel — that the teacher who should hint that 
the deities of the Pantheon were to yield all alike to 
the incomparable sovereignty of the Man Christ Jesus, 
would be hooted for his presumption, if he were not 
laughed at for his infatuation. 

And yet this very task it is that is presented to 
him to cheer him amid the discouragements of that 
other task amid whose sore discouragements we find 
him ! 

Whatever may seem to have been the strangeness 
of such a message, we know well that it did not fail 
of its effect. The greater, harder task that opened 
before the Apostle, instead of daunting, seems only 
to have inspired him. He may have been disheart- 
ened as he lay down to sleep within the castle-walls, 
but, though he woke next morning to learn of a con- 
spiracy whose successful accomplishment would have 
brought to him a speedy rest from his labors, yet with 
characteristic energy he defeats the plot and makes 
ready for his journey to Rome. And why ? Ah ! why, 
but because he reminds himself, even as in that mid- 
night vision his Master Himself had reminded him, that 



THE WITNESS OP ST. PAUL IN ROME. 197 

he is not doing his own work but God's work ; not sent 
to bear witness of Paul, but to teach and to preach Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified. What mattered it what be- 
came of himself, or of his words or labors or whole min- 
istry ? He was not inaugurating a new school of Pau- 
line philosophy, or gathering a new sect of Pauline dis- 
ciples. He might preach to unwilling ears in Rome 
even as he had in Jerusalem ; and his Master's message, 
instead of winning assent, might continue to provoke 
resentment. But his calling was simply to bear witness, 
and He whose message he proclaimed would take care 
of His own truth and win for it acceptance in His own 
time and way. Did He bid him bear that message to 
still unfriendlier shores, and to testify of the Cross to 
still more alienated peoples ? That call wa» an inspira- 
tion, no matter how hopeless the outlook. If God had 
other work for him to do, his it was to do it with a 
trustful and undaunted heart. The words recalled him 
from himself and his discouragements to his Master and 
His message. They reminded him whose messenger he 
was, and with whose truths he was intrusted. 

And that consciousness, alike profound and indwell- 
ing, was at once the spell of his power and the secret of 
his success. Need I remind you how in a few short 
years the whole face of things was changed, alike in 
that capital which he was now leaving, and in that other 
and mightier capital to which he was sent? Need I 
remind you how in a little while there came to be saints 



198 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

even in " Cassar's household " — that Caesar whose vices 
were even then so rank as to scandalize the mobs whom 
he diverted ? Need I tarry to show you how, next to 
the mighty power of the ministry of the Master Himself, 
there is no single influence so wide-reaching, so poten- 
tial, so marvelously transforming, as the influence of 
Paul the Apostle in all the history of primitive Chris- 
tianity ? As a few years later they led the aged Israel- 
ite without the walls along that Ostian highway whose 
earth who, here this morning, has not trod with a ten- 
derer reverence because of the martyr's memory, his 
Roman executioners thought they were putting an end 
to a troublesome enthusiast and to a contemptible and 
insignificant sect. And yet, already had the Apostle's 
witness to his Lord struck deep such roots as shook, ere 
long, the very foundations of the empire itself. In less 
than three centuries Rome was ruled by a Christian sov- 
ereign, and the banners of the empire, whether they 
waved in Jerusalem or in Rome, were blazoned with the 
image of the cross. In the spirit in which he, this great 
Apostle to the Gentiles, had labored, other men caught 
up the standard which fell from his dying hand and bore 
it forward to still wider and larger conquests. Read 
the story of the men, ay, and of the women, who fell in 
yonder amphitheatre, and see how this one solitary idea 
of their high calling as witnesses for Christ conquered 
their fears and steadied their courage to the bitter end ! 
And this, this it was that men could not misunderstand 



THE WITNESS OF ST. PAUL IN ROME. 199 

nor ignore. Who was this Galilean Divinity who could 
inspire such discipleship'and draw to His despised stand- 
ard such saintly heroism ? And so it came to pass that, 
step by step, indifference gave way to curiosity, and 
curiosity to interest, and interest to personal faith and 
absolute devotion. Men lost their personality in Christ, 
and by the indwelling power of that divine life which 
made the Apostle himself forever to say, " Not I, but 
Christ which dwelleth in me," they bore such witness to 
their Lord as won the world, wherever they went, to 
bow at their Master's feet. 

Happy would it be if we who sit here this morning 
had, as we turn over the pages of Christian history, 
nothing else to remember! But Jerusalem and Rome 
still stand to invite the feet of the pilgrim, and to chal- 
lenge the inquisitiveness of the student of history. And 
what can we say of the witness which they bear to-day 
to Him to whose name the great Apostle once so fear- 
lessly bore testimony within their walls ? How have 
they cherished and preserved that truth which Paul once 
preached to them, and which in other days found at 
length such wide and eager welcome ? Alas ! the con- 
trast with which they greet us to-day is as painful as it 
is instructive. It is but a few weeks since it was my 
fortune to find myself for the first time in Jerusalem, 
and to thread with reverent curiosity its ancient streets. 
There are others, I doubt not, here, who have made the 
same pilgrimage, and looked upon the same scenes. If 



200 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

so, let me ask you if there is any sadder spectacle than 
that ancient city, once the home of the Master and His 
disciples, hallowed as the scene of His mighty works 
and of His mightier death, given up to-day to the re- 
ligion of the Moslem and the dominion of the Turk? 
Yes, there is a sadder sight there even than this ; and 
it is the sight of those contending Christian sects whom 
a sneering Mohammedanism holds back ofttimes, with 
force of arms, from tearing each other in pieces, and 
whose shameless rivalries and dissensions profane alike 
the birthplace and the sepulchre of their common 
Lord. Where, we ask in shamefacedness and despair, 
as we wend our way among those scenes which supreme- 
ly the Master has hallowed by His presence, are the 
evidences of that earlier devotion which counted all as 
lost for Christ, and had no other aspiration than to bear 
its daily witness to His honor? Alas, we know now 
how, long ago, that simpler and single devotion died out 
of the Church of Jerusalem even as it did in so many 
others of the Churches of the East. We know now how 
selfish ambitions and a passion for personal aggrandize- 
ment usurped, in the hearts of prelates and priests and 
people, that other and heaven-born passion for the glory 
of Christ and His Gospel which burned in the heart of 
Paul. We know now how, when in the seventh century 
Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, surrendered the 
holy city to the Moslem Caliph, 1 he found only an old 
1 See Irving's " Mahomet and his Successors," chap, xviii. 






THE WITNESS OF ST. PAUL IN ROME. 201 

man seated on the ground eating dried dates and drink- 
ing only water — a man having but one single ambition, 
and that to win converts to the faith of Mohammed ; and 
we know, too, how then too late he realized that Moham- 
medanism had conquered Christianity by snatching from 
it its own weapons of supreme devotion to a leader, and 
of self-forgetful sacrifices for his sake. From that day 
to this, as we all know, amid whatever varying fortunes, 
the aspect of Jerusalem has not greatly changed. Christ 
is still a stranger to the vast majority of its people, 
and His name at best a jest or a byword upon their 
lips. 

And if it is thus to-day in Jerusalem, how is it to-day 
in Rome ? God forbid that I should use this place or 
these moments to call hard names or to bring any railing 
accusation against those of whatever faith who profess 
and call themselves Christians ? But where, dear friends, 
shall we look in this Rome of to-day for that earlier and 
loftier devotion which, among the converts of Paul the 
Apostle, burned and glowed at the name of Christ? 
Where shall we look for that single and supreme love 
for Him which would allow to no other, above all no 
mere creature alone, to usurp that honor which belongs 
to Him ? Where shall we look for a priesthood and a 
people with no thought of ecclesiastical aggrandizement, 
and no impulse but of love for the souls of men ? Where 
shall we look for the daily manifestation of that one su- 
preme truth, which, as it was central to the preaching of 



202 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

the Apostle, must needs be central to every living Church 
—the truth that the aim of a Christian life is not any 
selfish achievement, but simply to bear its clear and stead- 
fast witness to that Lord who hath bought it with His 
blood ? 

If we fear lest we might look in vain for such 
a manifestation elsewhere in this ancient capital, let 
us see to it that we do not look in vain for it here. 
We, who have reared this holy house to God's honor, 
and consecrated it under the name of His latest 
called but noblest Apostle, let us not forget that its 
presence in these streets is an impertinence, and its 
costliest adornments an empty mockery, unless here 
there is manifested a single and supreme desire to bear 
a ceaseless testimony to the name and work of Christ. 
For this, and for this only, if I understand their aims, 
have Americans reared this temple and given it to their 
Lord. Not to gratify any merely national pride, not to 
achieve any merely sectarian triumph, not to secure a 
safe retreat from within which to hurl either taunt or 
defiance at Christians of other whatsoever ,name, but 
simply, here, to witness for their Lord, have they who 
have toiled and they who have given up-builded these 
hallowed walls. And one who is but a stranger here 
may at least venture to offer the prayer that no other 
or less worthy aspiration may ever find a place within 
them ! 

This is St. Paul's Church. Oh, may the spirit of 



THE WITNESS OF ST. PAUL IN ROME. 203 

Paul be evident in every act performed, and heard in 
every word that shall be spoken here ; may no acrimo- 
niousness of partisan clamor ever find utterance here; 
may no narrowness of vision nor selfishness of aim shut 
out from the sight of priest or of people here the one 
solitary figure of a crucified and risen Christ ; and may 
the services which shall be said in this place, and every 
sermon which shall be preached here, witness to the 
infinite love and compassion of that Christ in a lan- 
guage which cannot be mistaken — a language of yearn- 
ing tenderness, and yet of unsparing truthfulness — a 
language of courageous directness, and yet of ceaseless 
wisdom ! 

Surely, it is a happy augury that this Church is to 
bear the name of the great Apostle to the Gentiles ; for 
who among the noble army of evangelists and apostles 
who laid the first foundations of Christ's Church has 
illustrated an energy so untiring, a purpose so un- 
daunted, and, above all, a wisdom so profound ? I think 
of him standing upon Mars Hill amid the rival divinities 
of classic Greece; and there, instead of scoffing at the 
idolatry which greeted him, recognizing with Christ-like 
tenderness and with a singular and high-bred courtesy 
the groping aspirations which, even there, were feeling 
after God if, haply, they might find Him. Something 
of such a spirit, something of such delicate discrimina- 
tion, such large-hearted sympathy, one may surely vent- 
ure to pray for in behalf of him who shall stand in this 



204 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

place and minister at yonder altar. For, after all, the 
responsibilities, in this age and supremely in this ancient 
city, of one who is called here to dispense the Word and 
Sacraments of the Master, are neither slight nor small. 
It is an age of restlessness and inquiry. It is a land 
where, just in proportion as faith has been challenged to 
yield its most blind assent, there are decaying belief and 
increasing doubt. 

Would to God, therefore, that from these walls there 
might go forth, and that, too, not only in our Anglo- 
Saxon speech, but in the ancient tongue of this ancient 
people, a new message of love and of life to souls that 
are now groping in the dark 1 Would to God that we 
Americans, who owe to Rome with her treasures of art 
and her wealth of Christian antiquities so vast, and, as 
yet, so utterly unrequited a debt, might pay it back to 
this land and this people, by giving to them the treasure 
of the saving and transforming Gospel of a living and 
compassionate Christ ! — You have seen, my brother, the 
visible and substantial rewards of your labors in the 
events of the past week. May they be but the earnest 
and beginning of yet nobler and more enduring rewards 
which are yet to come ! Because of the witness which 
this church shall bear to Christ and His truth, may mul- 
titudes now groping in ignorance or clouded by super- 
stition come to know the transforming power of a pure 
and scriptural faith, and the comfort of simple and child- 
like trust in a living and personal Christ ! In this free 



THE WITNESS OF ST. PAUL Ds T HOME. 205 

kingdom, where, at last, the principle of religious lib- 
erty has won such generous recognition, may God 
make this a free church, its doors wide open to all 
sorts and conditions of men, its every ministration hold- 
ing forth none other than that truth which makes men 
free indeed ! 



206 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 



PEAYEE. 

BY THE EIGHT EEVEEEND WILLIAM. HOBAET HARE, 
D. D., BISHOP OF NIOBEAEA. 

Thursday, March 30, 1876. 

" He spake a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought 
always to pray, and not to faint." — Luke xviii. 1. 

This sacred edifice, erected in the name of a reformed 
faith, has asked for, and has found in several of the 
preachers who have preceded me, voices to speak in 
behalf of doctrine, discipline, and worship, historical 
and churchly, and, at the same time, simple, and suited 
to the day. 

Consecrated in the presence of representatives of the 
English, Irish, and American Churches, it has wished to 
proclaim, and lips have been ready to be its mouth-piece, 
that the people who constitute what is now the dominant 
race upon both sides of the Atlantic have unity in faith 
and love. 

Its pulpit, knowing that this is preeminently the day 
when vigorous appeals to the mind, and heart, and con- 
science, are needed, has found a voice to express its wish 
that utterance may be given unto the preacher, that he 



PRAYER. 207 

may open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery 
of the Gospel. 

To-day, the sacred edifice rises up before my mind as 
the House of Prayer. Its lofty nave and aspiring arches 
speak to me of the upreachings of the human soul, and 
unite with the solemn act of self-consecration 1 which we 
are to witness here, in asking expression for some words 
regarding that exercise which is the secret and the joy 
of every consecrated life, and of which this building, we 
hope, will always be a helper and a home — prayer. 
While the noblest of themes, it is one upon which the 
humblest may speak, and appropriately, therefore, falls 
to me. 

1. What an interesting soliloquy — also a dialogue, 
for every single soul is twofold, and can talk with itself 
— we often carry on within us, on this subject of prayer! 

"Pray," says the better spirit in us. 

" What is the use of praying ? " say the world and 
the flesh within us. " We see no one to pray to." 

"No one to pray to?" replies the spirit. "Matter 
was its own creator, then, was it? And when self- 
created matter was lying about in wild confusion, it 
came to pass that some of its particles, simply by a 
happy accident, fell together in an order and a mode of 
union which we now call beasts ; while other particles, 
by a more felicitous accident, happened into what we 
now term men. Or, instead of God, the Beginning and 
J A confirmation. 



208 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

Maker of all things, there was once nothing in vast va- 
cancy but a germ of all things, which, in its immense 
loneliness, of itself (for there was no God) evolved out 
of itself a something better than itself, which something 
evolved out of itself something better than itself; and so 
on, endlessly, each consecutive product gaining on its 
predecessor, until a vast world of matter, without intel- 
ligent guidance, came to be ; and then some matter, of 
itself improving on the rest, came to be organic matter; 
and organic matter, getting ahead of itself, appeared as 
animate matter ; and animate matter blindly groped its 
way, without an intelligent guide, nay, without there 
ever having been such a thing as thought, or affection, or 
will before, into all the sublime ideas of the ages, into 
the soaring fancy of the poets, the majestic reasonings 
of Bacon and Newton, and the moral conceptions and 
unselfish love of Jesus ! The hypothesis is outrageous. 
It is an affront to my common-sense thus to maintain 
that matter should create intelligence, that what does 
not know should create a power to know. Nothing can 
be evolved that was not first involved my mind affirms. 

" The wonderful order and beautiful sequences about 
me lead me habitually to a sense of an author. I am 
surrounded by a vast array of art and genius (houses, 
parterres, machinery), and I know that they are the 
production of human thought and will. I am also a 
spectator of an array of things like these in their order, 
but vastly greater and more wonderful — the returning 



PRAYER. 209 

seasons, the symmetrical growth of vegetation, the roll 
of the planets. Is there anything in the sky above, or 
in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, 
to confront with a denial the inference of my soul that 
these more wonderful phenomena are the production of 
a superior thought and will, in other words, of God ? 

" The universal heart protests against all atheism. I 
have stood beneath the solitary ruins of Segeste and 
of PaBstum; I have sat on the Acropolis, under the 
simple majesty of the Parthenon ; I have penetrated 
softly the gloomy grandeur of the temples of the Nile ; 
I have gazed in the twilight upon the temples which 
surround the Roman Forum ; I have tracked the laby- 
rinth of the Catacombs, and listened as the skeletons 
there spoke to me of men who, by a grand moral revo- 
lution, swept away the old voluptuousness, and made 
all life throb with a new impulse and meaning; and 
then from the bowels of the earth I have gone and 
stood upon a lonely hill-top, and in the stillness of 
a starlit night have weighed well how all these dif- 
ferent and far-distant scenes roll up an overwhelming 
testimony that in every clime, age after age, the grand- 
est efforts — physical, mental, and moral — of man have 
been inspired by, and built up upon, faith in God. 
Sooner in that silence could 1 deny myself than say, 
i There is no God.' Visionary am I because I believe 
in and look out for the invisible ? So men called the 
young Columbus as he sat at Genoa and gazed after 






210 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

an unseen world out beyond the western sea. But 
there was an unseen world, and there is an intelligent 
cause. By His will all things were created and made. 
By Him all things consist. What His mode of crea- 
tion was, whether by successive creations, or by devel- 
opment, or by evolution, I know not. Whatever His 
mode, it is sublimely true. ' He spake, and it was done : 
He commanded, and they were created.' I pray to 
Him." 

But still the soliloquy continues : " What is the 
use of praying ? " insinuate the flesh and world within 
us, perhaps, some other day. " God, if He exist, is not 
near enough to hear us." 

" God is shut up within some particular part of His 
dominions, is He, then," replies the spirit, " as we shut 
a lion in a cage ? He can be measured as we measure 
oats in a bushel, or cloth by the yard ! There is some- 
thing akin to the immeasurable even in man who wearies, 
hungers, thirsts, and dies. The orator, from his place 
upon the platform, lays his finger upon the heart of the 
hall-boy. See him stand and listen entranced at the 
distant door. The popular general, sitting on his steed 
upon the hill-top, breathes in every officer and soldier of 
the hundred thousand who compose his command. You 
cannot confine a man to a spot. Nay, I know that I, my 
conscious self, a spirit, so penetrate my material body 
that my varying thoughts glisten in my eyeball and my 
feelings play about my mouth, and my invisible self is 



PRAYER. 211 

conscious of the slightest impression upon the tip of its 
outstretched little finger. "Why may not every part of 
Nature be in as real communication, though in some 
other manner, with the Great Mind, the invisible God, 
as any part of my body is with my invisible mind ? 
God's majesty is so great, Scripture teaches, that He 
filleth all things with His presence. If we ascend into 
heaven, He is there; if we go down to Hades, He is 
there. He is about our path, about our bed, and is 
acquainted with all our ways." 

" But what is the use of praying ? " retort the world 
and flesh. " God will not attend to our little wants." 

"God thinks it beneath Him to care for us, does 
He ? Nay, if it is beneath Him to care for us, it was 
beneath Him to make us. The universal sense of man 
teaches a different lesson. Travel with the Arab over 
the silent plain, and at the hour of evening prayer 
you will see him alight from his dromedary, spread his 
mat, bend his knees, and bow his head to his God. Sit 
with the wild red-men of America in council in the wig- 
wam, and, as. they pass round the pipe of peace, you 
will see a warrior solemnly puff the smoke from his 
mouth, and say, 'I smoke to God.' Had you supped 
with Greeks in the glory of their civilization and with 
Romans in the height of theirs, you would have seen 
them pause, as, before they ate, they poured out liba- 
tions to their present God ; eat with Christians, and you 
will mark the hush as they give thanks to theirs. And 



212 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

now, does God give men thus a nature which wishes 
for Him, does He attract us so that we instinctively 
follow after Him, to elude us, as the mischievous sprite 
in a story, or as a will-o'-the-wisp ? No ! no ! no ! 
(replies the better spirit) ; evening and morning and 
noonday will I pray and that instantly, and He shall 
hear my voice" 

" What is the use of praying ? " doggedly retort 
the world and flesh; "has not God, if there be one, 
arranged all things from the beginning ? Are they not, 
therefore, beyond the influence of our petition ? " 

"God governs, then, does He, not only by laws 
(which is one thing), but by cast-iron laws (which is 
quite another) ; cast-iron laws which He not only cannot 
by His will suspend, but which He cannot, either by 
dexterous combination of them, or by balancing one 
against another, or in any other way conceivable to man 
or God, so manage as to accomplish His purpose ; laws 
which are so blindly fatal that in things both material 
and spiritual they always work out their unalterable 
results with remorseless certainty whether the object of 
their operation flaunt rebellion in the face of his Maker 
or cling to Him in filial entreaty ! A little wanton 
boy can modify the action of the great laws of Nature. 
Skipping stones is no great achievement, but it proves 
that, under the direction of human thought and will, 
the laws of Nature can be made to do what you like. 
The boy so combines and modifies the law of gravita- 






PRAYER. 213 

tion, and the law of momentum, and the law of repul- 
sion, that the stone is freed from absolute bondage 
to any one of them, and, instead of falling vertically 
in obedience to gravity, or of moving horizontally in 
obedience to the momentum given it by his hand, or 
of simply flying off by repulsion as it strikes the sur- 
face of the water, it evolves out of these laws a fourth, 
and goes skipping along in a succession of curves. 
Shall the laws of Nature be at the will of a little child 
and not be at the disposition of the Almighty Creator ? 
Nay (says the spirit), I believe that God can so work 
by means of His laws that it is true : £ "Whatsoever the 
Lord pleases that He does in heaven and in earth,' " 

And, moreover, while speaking of unvarying rules, 
be it remembered that there is no more unvarying law 
than that God blesses the praying man. He attracts 
heaven's good things to him as much by law as the 
magnet attracts steel. There is a deep philosophy in 
prayer. Human wisdom can defend and has defended 
it with telling weapons, but, if these should fail, my 
conviction of the power of prayer will not fail. It will 
still stand recorded that Jesus taught that men ought 
always to pray and not to faint. Even then should 
some man, before whose intellect mine seems as nothing, 
come and tell me that his philosophy has made him 
laugh at prayer, and should there be no wise man of 
his own line of thought, full of great thoughts of God, 
to meet him and conquer him on his own chosen ground, 



214 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

still I shall sit quiet, waiting for further philosophic 
light, in the conviction that what the contemner thinks 
full day is only the twilight, in which things are often 
mistaken, and that not they who are of the earth, but 
He who came down from heaven, can best inform us 
of heaven's ways. He teaches that God notices the 
falling of a sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads, 
and that those who ask of Him receive. In goodness 
He towers above all other men, as Saul stood head 
and shoulders above his brethren. On the whole, He 
throws more light upon dark Nature than any other man, 
yea, more than all other men together. I surrender my- 
self to Him, and my judgment justifies me. All Nature 
and my soul now converse together about our God. The 
winds are to me the breathing of His Spirit. The ever- 
returning night is to me the constant mystery of His 
secret being which I accept, and in which I rest me. 
The day is the uncovering of the glory of His grace, 
before which all my powers burst into bloom. The life of 
Jesus is the revelation of the love and care of God. 
Pitying Jesus, fellow-sufferer, I cry to Him, surely there 
is a refuge. This awful mystery of my own heart ; bright 
hopes, and horrors of great darkness ; apathy as of one 
asphyxiated, and yearnings unutterable ; conceptions 
like a seraph's, and diabolical thoughts so horrible and 
hateful that before them I hold my breath ; my selfish- 
ness and my passionate, self-forgetting love ; is there not 
at our Father's feet an outlet for the rushing waters of 



PRAYER. 215 

this maelstrom ? Must they go forever whirling around 
their own centre ? Shall they never run clear ? Is the 
vision of the pure river of the water of life, proceeding 
out of the throne of God and the Lamb, but a dream ? 
The ocean, when troubled, finds relief. " The deep ut- 
ters his voice, and lifteth up his hands on high," the 
prophet says. I have seen it in the upreaching waves 
with their shivered, importuning crests. And when the 
deep within me is troubled, must I sit in dumb grief with 
folded arms ? When I am smothering, may I not gasp 
for air ? When I am sinking, may I not stretch out my 
hands for help ? When my heart is in heaviness, may I 
not complain? 

II. But some one may reply : " Yes, but I have often 
gasped, and found no air. I have lifted up my hands, and 
found nothing to catch hold of." 

The Saviour knew the deep trouble of the human heart, 
and that even good men would feel thus discouraged ; 
He therefore taught with emphasis that men "ought 
always to pray, and not to faint." They were never to 
allow themselves to lose faith in prayer. Himself the 
Counselor of the Father, and familiar with the secrets of 
heaven, He taught that, whatever the want of apparent 
success in praying may seem to justify, it does not war- 
rant our growing faint-hearted or remiss in prayer. 
One's disappointed soul may indulge many other sur- 
mises. One may think: God seems not to be answering 
my prayer, because He is answering it in a way which I 
10 



216 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

did not look for. I prayed, " Lighten my burden," and 
again and again, with an intensity of wish that could 
see only one way out of my trouble, cried out, " Lighten 
my burden." Instead, He has strengthened my back. 
It is with me as it was with my Lord. He prayed, " Let 
this cup pass from Me." The cup was not removed, but 
there "appeared an angel strengthening Him." One 
may think : God defers His answer, that it may seem 
more precious when it comes. One may think: God is 
wiser than man; the thing I am bent on having is not 
good for me, and therefore He denies it. One may 
think: God would try my faith. He holds the blessing 
I crave beyond my reach, to see how high I will stretch 
up after it ; so He spurs my aspiration and draws out 
my faith. One may think, perhaps : I am clinging to 
some favorite sin with one hand while I hold out the 
other to Him, and He would lead me, by deferring an 
answer, to stretch out both hands to Him in an agony of 
desire, and so let go the sin I was holding on to. But 
to think that there is no use in praying, that God has 
said, " Seek ye Me " in vain, and thus to be led to give 
up prayer, that we must never do. " Men ought always 
to pray, and not to faint." 

To press this lesson home, the Saviour narrated a 
parable, the point of which was, that it was simply in- 
credible that God could be insensible to the entreaties 
of His children. 

" There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, 






PRAYER. 217 

neither regarded man : And there was a widow in that 
city ; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of 
mine adversary. And he would not for a while : but 
afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, 
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, 
I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she 
weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust 
judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, 
which cry day and night unto him, though He bear long 
with them [that is, though with respect to them He bear 
long with the evil persons and evil things that oppress 
them] ? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." 

In other words, if an unjust judge, a reckless one at 
that, with a heart hardened against the authority of God 
and the wants of man, can be reached in one way or 
other, by the entreaties of a stranger, is it possible that 
there is no way in which God, the eternal Judge, the 
holy and the great, the pitiful, can be reached by the 
entreaties of His own elect ? Prayer, then, has power 
above. It is not lost on its way. It is not dismissed 
without attention. No widow's tale was ever so pathetic 
in the ears of man as is the complaint of a soul in the 
ears of the Lord when, in its spiritual widowhood, bereft 
of solace, with no place to flee unto, it flees unto Him in 
prayer. 

III. This practice of prayer ought to be looked upon 
as the privilege and duty of all. For God is the God 
that heareth prayer, unto whom all flesh should come. 






218 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

If, then, the question should be put, " May an impeni- 
tent man pray ? " the answer should be, " By all means." 
Not, of course, if he be a man who is capable of intend- 
ing to mock the God that heareth prayer ; but if there 
be any man who, while habitually disobeying God, is yet 
in the habit of praying (it may be he hardly knows why, 
for a loved wife's or a mother's sake, peradventure), let 
him by no means give it up. That practice may be the 
one cord that holds him back from ruin. The current of 
the evil world runs fast ; let him no more sever that cord 
than, if a boatman, he would cut the rope which holds 
his boat from being carried down the rapids of Niagara. 
His habit of saying his prayer is one remaining recogni- 
tion of the existence of God, and a showing of at least 
outward reverence for His glory. Let him not give the 
habit up. It is bad for a son to disobey his father ; it is 
worse for him to refuse him even the outward tokens of 
respect. He then becomes a boor. In prayer, such a 
man draws near, if he does not actually come to, 
the river of God's love and grace. He may be induced 
some time, poor man! to quaff its water and quench 
his thirst. It may be, perchance, that some time at its 
brink he will light upon that gracious Messenger who 
seems to take pains to meet with men in their so- 
berer hours ; he may be led to step into the Messen- 
ger's boat and let Him pilot him back from his exile 
to his home, to life and peace. Moreover, his praying, 
if it be nothing more, is a move in the right direction. 



PRAYER. 219 

If a man practise it, he is one step, it may be a short 
one, but one step nearer heaven than if he did not prac- 
tise it. To pray in any way, unless it be to mock the 
Lord, is practically better than not to pray at all. 

And if, in the infinite mercy of God, even the wicked 
are permitted to address Him, how interesting in His 
ears must be the words of the man who, while yet in his 
sins, is beginning to ask if there be no way out of them ; 
whose infant faith is putting out its small hand for a 
guide ! The sense of helplessness which then comes over 
a man, who can tell how God pities it ! The anxiety, the 
doubt, the fear, the shame if any one, even the wife of 
his bosom, should so much as suspect that he is thinking 
of the subject of personal religion, the alternate stretch- 
ing out for the good and the tendency, as he mixes with 
the world, to settle down in sin — God only knows how 
He takes it to His heart. And when such a soul bows 
in prayer, feeling, " I cannot help myself, my help must 
come from God;" when with unready lips not yet taught 
in the words of prayer it tells its tale, how sin coils 
around all its powers, and that from sin it tries in vain 
to free itself ; how it has good desires, too weak, how- 
ever, to accomplish anything, crying, " Make those de- 
sires stronger ; " how it has some belief, yet so mixed 
up with doubts that its cry must be, " Help Thou mine 
unbelief " — then God bows over that soul in infinite ten- 
derness and compassion. He speaks deliverance to the 
captive, the opening of the prison to them that are 



220 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

bound. He owns the work which in truth has been His 
from the beginning, and brings it to completion. 

Oh, then, that we all may pray ! that those who 
have prayed may pray more and better ! that those who 
have not prayed may begin to pray to-day. The begin- 
ner may at least say this much, a tried saint of God 
wished to say no more : " O my God, take my heart, for 
I cannot give it Thee ; and when Thou hast it, Oh, Tceep 
it, for I cannot keep it for Thee ; and save me in spite 
of myself.' 5 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 221 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 

BY THE EEV. STOPFOED BEOOKE. 

Friday, March 31, 1876. 

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." — 
Psalm xxrv. 1. 

This church has been built and consecrated, as all 
true churches are built, for the purpose of associated 
worship of God. It is not set up as a place where men 
are to worship God in separation from other religious 
communions in a national or a sect isolation. The ser- 
vices of this week have proved the contrary. Nor is it 
set up here — the first Protestant church in Rome — in 
opposition to the religion of Rome ; nay, I should rather 
hope that it would, while denying the error of Rome, 
strive to meet those who worship God in that com- 
munion on the grounds that are common to both. But, 
assuredly, its foundation here, in the midst of this citj^ 
is a protest against that opinion of the Church of Rome, 
that only those who hold her doctrine can associate for 
the worship of God. For the very foundation idea of 
any Protestant church is not so much protest against 
special errors as a protest for the idea that all men, of 



222 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

whatever form of religious opinion, have the right to 
worship God together. 

A church is an association of men to worship God, 
and it preserves the grander thought that all mankind 
will finally be linked together in common adoration of 
God. This church enshrines that idea in forms. It does 
not matter that it is for a particular nation, or a special 
form of worship. It is not that particular that those 
who worship here should think of, or dwell on, as they 
pray. It is that they represent, in one particular form, 
the universal truth that all men are bound to bind 
themselves together into one communion, on common 
grounds, for God's worship, and that they look forward 
to a time when all men shall be, in such a worship, 
united for evermore. 

It is on a portion of the thoughts linked to this idea 
of all mankind associated to worship God, of which idea 
all churches are the witness and the encouragement, that 
I shall speak this morning. 

Associated worship of God is founded on belief in 
the common Fatherhood of God and the common con- 
sciousness of immortality. The natural inference from 
the holding of such truths is belief in the progress of 
man. This progress was secured and promoted, first, by 
devotion to the great ideas which experience had slowly 
wrought out and shown to be necessary for progress ; 
and, secondly, by recognizing quickly and working for 
those new ideas which God, in His continuous revela- 



ASSOCIATED WOKSHIP OF GOD. 223 

tion, gave to us through men. To hold that such ideas 
were from God, and that God's intention in revealing 
them was for the final good of all mankind, was to 
make work for them, and in them, religious. And such 
work, on such grounds, when united in by men all over 
the world, was, in spite of the differences of class, na- 
tion, and religious opinion, associated worship of God. 
Opposed to all this was the exclusive individual theory 
of religion, which made it a matter only between God 
and each man's soul, and set aside associations in re- 
ligions. There is another part of the individual theory 
which is directly opposed to the thought that associated 
worship of God consists in men uniting to carry out and 
to work for the ideas which promote the progress of the 
race. That other part is this : that this world is not 
God's ; that this world and its interests have nothing to 
do with Him ; that the commercial, political, artistic, and 
scientific labors of mankind have no connection with the 
world to come ; that we cannot worship God rightly 
unless we separate our religion from them, and ourselves 
from their pursuit ; that all these things are nothing in 
comparison with the immortal life of the soul ; and that 
we are to fix our minds on that alone, and on heaven, 
where all things of this kind are dust and ashes. 

In speaking of the two theories that oppose it, we 
shall find room to say many things which all who wish 
to feel a true religious association with one another 
should avoid. 



224 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

In speaking of the truth of the Hebrew conception, 
we shall find the idea and its attendant thoughts, which 
all those who worship in a church should feel moving 
through them like glowing fire as they worship ; which 
they should carry with them, like rushing fire, through 
their daily work. 

1. Naturally, if that statement be true, there is no 
universal associated worship of God possible ; for none 
of the large interests that unite men have then anything 
to do with God or His worship. There is no worship of 
God in fighting for liberty, no religion in scientific pur- 
suits, in trade, in union for social or sanitary improve- 
ment, in the life of the artist, in the life of the poli- 
tician. The interests of this world die with the world ; 
when death comes and we step into the new life, they 
are like a dream when one awaketh.. It is this concep- 
tion I wish to state the opposite to this morning. The 
earth is the Lord's, and its fullness ; its work is worship 
of Him, and the work of heaven is the work of earth 
continued, as the work of summer and autumn is a con- 
tinuation of that of winter and spring. 

If the earth is not the Lord's, whose is it ? Is the 
devil, then, its lord and king? This is the creed of 
many religious persons ; we find its results in all the 
forms of asceticism. The body was degraded, beaten, 
emaciated, rendered unhealthy, and the diseased frame 
and diseased brain of thousands gave birth to monstrous 
growths of superstition, to cruel opinions, to hysterical 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 225 

religion. It proves nothing as to the good of it that 
many of the greatest intellects practised it, for the fact 
is that, when it is not combined with solitude and retire- 
ment from the world, fasting and hardship do not much 
injure men ; and men, like St. Francis or St. Bernard — 
the one the type of the emotional, the other of the or- 
ganizing intellect — soon left their solitudes and became 
active leaders of great movements. Practically, they 
did not act as if the world were altogether of the devil. 
It is when men, holding that all human things were evil, 
left them, and were not drawn, like the greater spirits, 
into the midst of life, that we find all the evil of this 
belief. They separated themselves from domestic, so- 
cial, and national life and duties ; they put a ban on 
them by such separation, they left a greater burden of 
them to be borne by others than was right. The forces 
were spent which might have moved the world forward 
in resisting temptations which their solitude created for 
them. Cast upon their own heart and its emotions 
alone, they became spiritually selfish ; devoted only to 
their own selves, they forgot to save the world. If they 
conquered temptation, spiritual pride inflamed them ; if 
they were conquered, spiritual despair made their lives 
useless and frightful. The monasteries, with all their 
good (and it was in some ways great, but great in pro- 
portion as they were less solitary), were the idling fields 
of Europe, and their tendency was to become more and 
more idle ; and often, as the result of idleness, more 



226 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

and more immoral. These were the natural results of 
the theory that the earth was the devil's. What, then, 
shall we say of the theory ? 

It had a further inference : it made all the work of 
the world profane ; God could not be in any labor. The 
law-maker was forced to separate between his work and 
his religion ; the warrior found no divine idea in his 
battle ; the artist, unless he were a merely religious one, 
was driven into irreligion ; the scientific man became a 
heretic. All these pursuits were held to be profane at 
their root, unless they were distinctly used for religion, 
and the result was that there was no conception in men's 
work that restrained them from degrading it. It was 
profane — let it be profane. All the common labor of 
mankind was divided from religion and handed over to 
the devil ; infinite evil of this. When the theory went 
further, and made not only all work, but all thought 
that did not support the theology of asceticism devilish, 
persecution for opinion was established with all its ter- 
rible train of cruelties, and free thought in such matters 
as science and learning, whose discoveries clashed with 
theology, was imprisoned, bound, and slain ; progress of 
man was checked. These are the results of the theory 
that makes this human world the world of the devil, and 
they are results which, even at this time, are not un- 
common ; they utterly, I say, condemn the theory. The 
same temper is in Protestantism. 

2. The earth is man's, and man's alone. Its work is 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 227 

not profane or Divine ; it does not belong to the devil, 
but neither does it belong to God. There is no God, or, 
if He exists, He has nothing to do, that we know of, 
with us and our world. The earth with its labor is 
simply human, and we have to do our work in it quietly, 
without personal hope, without any hope for mankind's 
final continuance, seeking in that which surrounds us 
our only labor, striving to make things that lie before us 
better — our own lives, our children, the laws, the social 
principles, the health of man. We know by experience 
that this or that cause is evil or good for man ; we know 
we ought to obey the laws of Nature, and our work is 
to pursue the better cause and to obey Nature, and con- 
sole ourselves for eternal death by the feeling that those 
who come after us will be better off than we. This is 
our religion ; to do it is our worship, to be pleased in 
doing it our heaven. 

Well, it has its force, and, if there is unutterable sad- 
ness in it, there is a certain sentimental nobility in it 
that comes out of the cause of its sadness, and which is 
creative of a philosophy of stern endurance and a poetry 
of wild regret. In neither is there any progressive vi- 
tality. When the sadness of it is not felt, there does not 
seem any intellectual or poetic nobility in it ; it gives 
up problems that exist without one touch of shame — 
and that is either want of intellectual care or courage — 
and it takes more than half the poetic elements out of 
life. 



228 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

The earth is man's and the fullness thereof. He 
bears up the pillars of it. There is no spirit beyond this 
perishing one ; there is no life beyond this dying one. 
At the root of all that religious passion and worship by 
which so many millions have lived and died, there is no 
reality, and all these were the fools of fancy, and died 
deceived ; at the root of all human progress there is no 
impelling power, at its end there is no end ; at the root 
of all beauty there is no eternal beauty ; of all our love 
of it there is no eternal source or object ; at the root of 
all life there is no self-existent life that cannot die, that 
must go on evolving life. At the root of all effort there 
is no eternal will, no supporting power ; at the root of 
all the love of earth there is no continuance. At the 
root of all education there is no great end ; at the root 
of all government there is no governor. O God, how 
pitiful ! Where, then, is worship ? Worship moral ex- 
cellence, it is said. Why, it is perishing. The noblest 
and the truest meet the same fate as the basest, and all 
the moral beauty of mankind, age after age, sinks into 
nothingness at last. We cannot long worship that 
which is the food of death, that which has no essential 
life ; and while we worship it our ideal of worship 
droops, and its practical power as a motive of life de- 
cays. Worship humanity, we are told. Who can long 
worship an abstraction without the worship growing 
cold ? Love passes from it, and it cannot move the 
world. Or, if it is said that humanity is not an ab- 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 229 

straction, that the human race, which is worshiped as a 
whole, is concrete enough, it is still a dying human race, 
and it is not possible to worship that which every hour 
kills; or it is a failing, miserable, wicked, victimized 
race ; and is a thing which shares in these elements, 
and has no chance in this theory of ever getting final rid 
of them, a thing which men can worship long ? 

It may be. I would not speak too boldly for others, 
but it does not seem to me that this can satisfy the 
craving heart of man, or kindle it to great enthusiasm, 
or ennoble it in an enduring way. That the earth is 
man's may do for the new gospel ; but it makes the 
earth a desert to me, and I would despise my life could 
I think it true. I cannot attack or abuse this new re- 
ligion, as men call it, nor will I argue the subject, for 
all argument could only address those who feel the 
thirst for God, the passionate desire for the continuance 
of conscious love and effort and joy, which is the desire 
of high immortality ; and these longings, with which I 
would fain hope the race still thrills, I am told are not 
felt at all by those who have taken a Divine will out of 
the world of men. It is better to leave the new teach- 
ing to do its work, to prove its power to heal the ills 
and console the sorrows of mankind, to make its proof 
of its being better for man than the elder gospel of a 
Father and a Saviour and a life to come. Only for the 
sake of the validity of the proof, I should like those 
who deny, or those who say that they know nothing of 



230 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

God and immortality, to isolate themselves into a body- 
apart from the Christian world, and see what sort of a 
society theirs would be in the lapse of a century. As 
long as they live and teach in a society drenched with 
the ideas of Christ, it is impossible their doctrines can 
have fair play ; they are always being modified uncon- 
sciously, even in their own minds, by the results of the 
belief in God and in a life to come. 

The earth is the devil's, the earth is man's. In op- 
position to both these views, I state this old Hebrew 
saying, " The earth is the Lord's." All the life of man 
and all his work is of God and a part of the life to 
come. It is in the denial of that, and in the results that 
follow its denial, that all the evil arises that seems to 
contradict the truth that this world is God's world ; 
till men believe in it with all their heart, and unite to 
believe it and to live by it, there will be wrong and sin, 
and the sorrow that corrupts and does not exalt the 
soul. The true way to destroy evil is ultimately to get 
men to confess and believe both that their lives and 
their work are given to them and inspired by God, that 
they are to be ruled and directed by Divine ideas, and 
more than all by this idea, that the whole of mankind is 
going on in God to final good, and that all work is only 
useful as it ministers to that eternal progress. Each of 
us would then feel as if he were himself an apostle, and 
it would be the true feeling to possess — a feeling which 
would kindle in us a fire of duty, in our hearts thoughts 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 231 

that would burn, and on our lips words that would in- 
flame the world. Each of us would feel then that we 
have a special work to do in this great labor, and that 
our work was not isolated but contained in the great 
whole ; not of mean repute, but glorified as part of the 
magnificent conception at whose accomplishment God 
toils. And all our lives would become honorable, wor- 
thy of love, conquerors of difficulty in the splendor of 
the thought. Each of us then would have a higher in- 
spiration in our work than any earthly one, a stronger 
motive to keep it noble and pure than any this world 
can give. We should sanctify our labor from the mo- 
tives of self and money-getting and dishonorable fame, 
for we should think of it, not as a means of temporal 
advance to ourselves, but of the eternal advance of the 
whole race. We should keep our life true and pure and 
loving and high-minded and generous, for so we should 
make it like what it is bound to be — the work of God. 
We should do all its work, not within the thoughts that 
bound our own narrow life, but in harmony with the 
thoughts that regulate the music of the world's prog- 
ress. We should do it not as individuals alone, or with 
an individual aim, but in communion with all mankind, 
and with an aim for all the race, so that in the knowl- 
edge of the universal sympathy of all men with us, and 
in the thought that we were at one with all humanity, 
an ineffable grandeur would be given to it, a grandeur 
that would grow like the dawn into brightness following 



232 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

brightness, and joy redoubling joy, as we come to know 
more clearly through our work that all humanity was at 
one with God. 

There would be a solid foundation for every life and 
its labor. The great statesman would feel, in carrying 
wise measures and in making laws, not only that he was 
bettering his nation for a time, but that he was enabling 
her to do her part in the greater work of the whole prog- 
ress of man to final unity in God ; he would feel in his 
work on international law that he was not only benefit- 
ing his own nation's trade and prosperity, but linking 
together all nations into a closer association toward a 
vaster union in the future, when all should be one in 
God. The merchant would feel the same in his com- 
mercial work. Beyond his own personal interests, be- 
yond the national interest of trade, he would think that 
his work was to help to knit the world together more 
closely, that it might the quicker reach the glorious end 
when all should interchange in heavenly peace their 
good. The soldier would go forth to battle in a just 
and noble cause, not only that his nation might prevail, 
but that he might contend for the ideas which are the 
life-blood of humanity, and die, knowing that he had 
warred for God, ministered to man's eternal progress. 
The social reformer would think not only that he had 
brought health to a town, or redeemed an outcast class, 
but that, in bringing health, he had given more energy 
to men destined to God's work, and in redeeming the 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 233 

criminal he had advanced the great day of the Lord, 
when all mankind should be without sin. The scientific 
man would not love physical truth alone, or the artist 
beauty alone ; but both would love their work and the 
thoughts and emotions at its root more deeply, because 
every fresh truth, every new form of beauty were steps 
by which man might get nearer to the Divine future. 
All would have a Divine centre and a Divine hope and 
power at the foundation of their work ; each beyond 
the special sphere of his labor, beyond the brief life he 
lives, would have an infinite and ennobling aim. There 
would be nothing which would not be the Lord's, noth- 
ing which would not have relation to all mankind for- 
ever. 

No one could then dream that this life was to be 
separated from the other, to be considered apart from 
the other ; it would be as religious to live keenly in the 
present as in the future. The present would be seen as 
part of the life to come ; it is part of the life to come. 
Present and future are merely names to us ; there is but 
one forever present life. We do not really live in time, 
time is but a name for a fraction of our life ; we really 
abide forever in eternity, and are always eternal. And 
in this faith all our interests are also eternal; all our 
affections go on in an unbroken chain : all our struggle 
after knowledge goes on after death as if no death had 
been ; all our love of beauty, all our art, is as great and 
vital an interest and passion in the world we call the 



234 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

other world as it is here. All our noble work either goes 
on directly or fits us for other work of the same kind ; 
every step of the way is in vital union with the goal. 
There is no break in continuance; there is only change, 
the change that progress works ; it is like the year's 
change of seasons — each season's cause and effect, 
growth, transition, unbroken continuance of life. We 
have our winter here ; all the powers of the greater 
life are ours when we come into this world, but they are 
hidden in the earth of our nature ; it is long before we 
can force them above the ground and make them break 
into outward being. Imagination, intellect, spiritual 
force — their rapid growth is not only prevented, it is 
impossible. There are baffling barriers which we cannot 
overpass at once ; they limit us, like the frosty air and 
hardened ground that concentrate the sap in the root, 
and they do the same good work, though it often seems 
a cruelty to us ; they are part of the preparation for a 
higher life, and that this life is to be is their only ex- 
planation. Our winter is bound to the coming time by 
natural and necessary ties. 

We have our spring here, for, passing out of the in- 
ward and hidden struggles of youth, we learn enough of 
our powers to use them rightly. As we grow older we 
become masters of our life; we make imagination our 
servant, intellect our slave, the emotional powers our 
faithful friends, and the barriers that baffled our en- 
deavors seem to melt away; they are at least not so 



I 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 235 

troublesome as in youth. Then comes our spring — we 
have it here ; our life bursts into flower and leaf, and re- 
joices in itself. We work, and we know we work ; but 
it has no perfection and no fruit, and it is often a fierce 
and bitter struggle. Bitter winds, cutting hail, the 
morning frosts that nip the bloom and the bud, the lash- 
ing storms of March, have all their analogies in the life 
of the man who has found his powers and begun to 
make them tell. How sorely we are baffled and buffeted 
in life ! and were it not that every storm drives us back 
on ourselves to strengthen some weakness, to add more 
vital force to some power for a coming purpose — were 
all this not education, did not our winter and our stormy 
spring look forward to the fullness of summer and the 
fruit of autumn, this life of ours would be, indeed, the 
inexplicable thing it is declared to be by many; but 
summer comes and autumn, and they are the natural 
continuance of winter and spring. We have our sum- 
mer rest after death ; some have something of it here 
in the mellowed beauty of old age. But that is not 
common ; our rest is beyond these noises. It is rest, 
not in sloth, but in the plenteous wealth of produc- 
tive summer — rest in the warm air of God's love and 
of universal love of man, to breathe which is itself crea- 
tive of easy and happy growth — the rest of fullness of 
life, of the use of all our powers in harmony with one 
another and with circumstance. 

With our summer is linked our autumn, the time of 



236 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

fruitfulness, when all the long restraint of winter, and 
all the buffeting of the spring, will find their meaning 
and their use in the rich harvest of fruit we shall pro- 
duce for the good and food of the whole. And there 
shall be forever fullness and fruit, without a winter — 
fullness and fruit for the blessedness and good of all. 

It is with that close that our winter and spring here 
are inseparably connected ; they form one life, as the 
seasons form one year. It is not, then, "Live apart 
from earth, that you may live for heaven," that we say ; 
it is, "Live for earth, and you will live for heaven; for, 
as heaven is the Lord's, and its fullness, so also is the 
earth and its fullness." 

And now what is the conclusion of these things? 
If they be true, then all the true work of this world is 
God's work, and for God's great purpose of the educa- 
tion and progress of mankind to eternal life in Him. 
And to do it, with that faith, is worship of Him ; and 
to do it with a felt sympathy with others, with the sense 
of an eternal communion with all men, with the thought, 
not of our individual salvation, but of the salvation of 
the whole as its motive-power and end, is associated 
worship of God. Then every great human interest is 
God's interest, and part of the interests of the life to 
come ; and when we contend for liberty, when we pur- 
sue after truth in science, in philosophy, in discovery, 
when we seek the hidden beauty, and bring its forms to 
light for the comfort and joy of man, when we organize 



ASSOCIATED WORSHIP OF GOD. 237 

a national life, when we redeem a degraded community 7 
when we increase the well-being of a class or clear away 
disease or crime, when we send a thousand ships to bind 
nations together by the noble interchange of commerce, 
when we teach and enforce high truths in the life of 
literature, we are not doing any human but Divine work ; 
we are living the life of God, we are living the life of 
heaven. And every hour of our day is a worship of 
God in union with our fellow-laborers, a worship which 
is fulfilling the aspiration and the prayer of Christ for 
men — " Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth 
as it is in heaven." 



238 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 



CHRIST WOKKING IN HIS CHUKCH 

BY THE EEV. B. J. NEVIN, D. D. 

Preached April 1, 1876, 

At the Ordination to the Diaconate of the Eev. Geokge Whitfield 
Benjamin, M. A., M. D., of New Haven, Conn. 

"The former treatise have I made, Theophilus, of all 
that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which 
he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had 
given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. " 
— Acts i. 1, 2. 

The former treatise here referred to is the Gospel 
according to St. Luke. Turning to it, we find that it 
was written to this same Theophilus, who seems to have 
been a Gentile convert of magisterial rank, that he 
might know in order the certainty of those Christian 
doctrines in which, so far, he had been only orally in- 
structed; and this, says the writer, who, as an eye- 
witness and minister of the incarnate Word from the 
beginning, claims to have had a perfect understanding 
of all things from the very first — this, in regard to those 
things which were then most surely believed in the 
Christian society in which both Theophilus and the 



CHRIST WORKIXG IX HIS CHURCH. 239 

writer stood. These things, then, of most sure belief 
that follow in that Gospel are certain facts in regard to 
the life of Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth, in Galilee, 
and certain doings and teachings of His, until the day 
when, from the Mount of Olivet, He was taken up visibly 
into heaven, after He had given commandments and a 
special mission to certain men whom He had chosen to 
be His witnesses and Apostles to the world. This mis- 
sion was, that they should go and make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever He, their Lord, had com- 
manded them. And as a power to enable them to fulfill 
this mission, He promised to be with them alway, even 
unto the end of the world. 

Here St. Luke finished his relation of all that Jesus 
began to do and teach, as He walked among men in the 
body which was born of the Virgin Mary, and in which 
He ascended into the heavens, and now, before the 
throne of God, is forever making intercession for us — 
for every soul of man that is provoking God's punish- 
ments for sins constant and, alas ! too often unrepented 
of — forever holding His precious passion, His deadly 
wounds, between God and our evil work, between us and 
God's wrath — an all-sufficient, because an infinite, sac- 
rifice. But Jesus did not stop either His teaching or 
doing upon earth when He passed into the heavens. 
He left behind Him a band of witnesses chosen by Him- 
11 



240 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

self, with whom He promised, descending by His Spirit, 
to be for all time. They, as individuals, were mortal, 
and were to pass away, but they, as a body, were not to 
pass away. They, as individuals, were weak and un- 
trained and erring; but, united, they were to be uncon- 
querable and infallible, and, through all the confusion 
and failures of their several parts, the work they did as 
a whole was their Lord's work, in so real a sense that 
their society is called by the Holy Ghost His body, 
through which He would work as truly and efficiently 
as He did through that body of flesh and bones in which 
He went about doing good of old in the villages and 
cities of favored Galilee, and won the victory of life 
through the suffering and apparent defeat of the Cross. 
Only now His work is no longer confined to a petty 
province like Palestine, or a despised people like the 
Jews, nor is it shut up within the feeble powers of a 
mortal body and the limits of a few short years, but 
from the heavenly mountain-top, whence now He ob- 
serves and rules the heavings of the whole creation, 
Jesus, through the myriad mouths of His Apostles and 
their successors, is preaching through every land and to 
all peoples, and, by the everywhere reaching hands of 
Apostolic Churches, is blessing men the world around 
and for all time ; and thus He will continue both to do 
and teach from heaven, His dwelling-place, by the power 
of the Holy Ghost, until He shall come again in glory, 
not now to teach, but to judge the world. 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 241 

So now, not less than thirty-three years after the 
Lord was taken up into heaven, St. Luke wrote this 
book, which opens with our text, to show us how, in 
the beginnings of the Church, Jesus went on to finish 
through His servants what He only began to do and 
teach in the days of His flesh in Judea. He does not 
pretend therein to tell us all that the Apostles did, or 
that even any one of them did. It is not, therefore, " the 
Acts of the Apostles," as we commonly call it, but rather 
actings of Apostles, certain apostolic workings, by which 
Christ's ministry was perpetuated and increased, and 
His society enlarged and widened to take in first Sa- 
maria, and then all men who would believe on His name 
through all the Gentile world, and in the course of which 
it is shown us how the Gospel of Christ crucified met 
evil in its then most reigning forms on earth : idolatry 
and image-worship at Lystra and Ephesus, sorcery and 
witchcraft in Samaria and Philippi, skeptical philosophy 
at Athens, and intellectual pride and worldly luxury at 
Corinth, met and conquered them all, until at last it 
found a lodgment in this imperial city — the world-capi- 
tal of that age — in the person of the prisoner Paul, 
through whom, though an embassador in bonds, the 
ever-unbound Word of God ran forth, and had free 
course, and was manifested both in Caesar's court and in 
all other places, until at last, in palace and hovel and 
secret catacomb, the Christian Society had laid here 
broad and deep foundations, which all the material 



242 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

might of the world's heathen capital essayed in vain to 
overflow or destroy. 

But all through these acts we are constantly re- 
minded of one thing : that it is the Lord Jesus Himself 
who is doing them, who is administering His household 
the Church. He it is, and not the Apostles, who chooses 
Matthias ; He calls Saul on his mad way to Damascus ; 
He works miracles by the hand of the Apostles ; He 
adds to the infant Church from day to day such as shall 
be saved ; He comforts Paul in ward at Jerusalem, and 
calls him to bear witness at Rome ; and it is with the 
picture of this Christ-called Apostle, preaching here 
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with 
all confidence, no man forbidding him, that the sacred 
narrative closes. With what the Apostles were, or 
did, as men, the book troubles not itself. What they 
looked like, what families they may have had, when or 
how they died, where they were buried, these things, 
however interesting and precious they would be to us to 
know of in regard to men so revered and loved, are 
never so much as alluded to, for they are nothing in the 
history of what Jesus, the Lord, was going on to do in 
the world. But that the Gospel was preached far and 
wide, that was everything ; and that souls that should be 
saved were added daily to the Church; that, to a world 
lying in darkness, the truth spread everywhere, and pre- 
vailed mightily, not only over outside heathen enemies, 
but over the foes of its own household, breaking loose 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 243 

from all the swathing bands in which the early preju- 
dices, or the secular policy of some of its first Apostles, 
would have cramped up its free and natural growth. 
The whole spirit, then, of this inspired book of early 
Christian acts is to raise the reader above the mere hu- 
man factors, and impress on him the great fact that 
Christ Himself, the Jehovah Jesus, who of old, by cloud 
and fire, had led His people Israel through strange and 
devious ways, through sea and desert, through hunger 
and weariness and warring, safe into the promised land, 
was keeping His promise to be with His Church on to 
her victorious end; was leading His people, the souls 
that were willing to follow Him out of the darkness of 
error into the light of truth, no longer by the hand of 
human leaders, as Moses and Aaron, but by His own 
hand, and by the leading of His own voice. In the 
Book of Acts, the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth as the 
head and hero of His Church then, as He has been 
through all her working since. Yery wonderful are 
these few pages of inspired church-history in this mat- 
ter, very saving against the ideas of mere secular or- 
ganization and of human unity of direction, which it 
was inevitable would soon develop themselves in the 
growth of the Church, striving to fashion it after the 
pattern, not of things in the heavens, but of the success- 
ful kingdoms of the earth. 

When the Church thus became established strongly 
in this city, whose political dream was that she should 



244 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

unite under herself as world-capital and mistress all the 
kingdoms of the earth, without regard to any commu- 
nity of blood, or language, or laws, or material interests, 
and hold them in subjection to her absolute sway by the 
influence of mere brute force, it was inevitable that this 
idea of world-dominion, which seemed at the time not 
only politically successful, but to be the most promising 
solution of the great world-problems of that day, should 
seize hold of ardent minds in the Church as the true 
realization of her work in her sphere, and lead them to 
devise the scheme, first, of a great spiritual kingdom 
compacted together in an unbroken unity through a 
well-organized hierarchy, governed at first on republican 
principles, by the authority of general councils, in which 
both clergy and laity had a voice, but corrupting itself 
later into the imperial system, as, in the decadence of 
civilization and the general breaking up of all estab- 
lished society, a stronger and more vigorous centre of 
unity seemed to be required to meet the emergencies of 
troublous times. Naturally, in such a case — for the 
whole idea, even while it pretended to confine itself to 
the spiritual sphere, was after a secular pattern — this 
centre was found in that Apostolic See which, though 
last of the great Apostolic patriarchates in foundation, 
was yet, as that of the world's metropolis, the only one 
that had any possible chance of enforcing with success 
her pretensions to such an authority. This claim once 
established, we need not be surprised, as the overgrown 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 245 

mass of the Roman political empire fell into total and 
irreparable ruin, to find the idea developed that the mis- 
sion of the Church called her to set herself up now upon 
earth as the head of a great temporal kingdom of Christ, 
which, in right of the sovereignty of the universe com- 
mitted to her Master in heaven, should gradually, by fair 
or foul means, subject the whole world to His self-con- 
stituted vicar on earth, and gather together, under one 
mild and beneficent sway, all the tribes of the earth, 
realizing thus through her Popes the fond ambition of 
the Caesars. 

But St. Augustine's magnificent " Vision of the State 
of God," reaching a visible perfection through its human 
organization and discipline on earth, and Gregory's bold 
and thoroughly secularized scheme of a united spiritual 
and temporal domination of the world, are, both of 
them, of the earth, earthy, when we place them beside 
the first working of Christ's Church on the world, as we 
have it sketched for us by the pen of inspiration. Greg- 
ory's plan had, it is true, much of beneficence and wis- 
dom in it, and has done no small service to the world in 
its day ; but it was man's wisdom and man's way, rather 
than God's, and its benefits to mankind were in the 
order of things temporal rather than of things spiritual; 
and the day for these having passed away, it, too, as a 
governing system must come to its end — it, too, has 
come to its end, found wanting because it has tried to 
fetter the truth within its own finite limits, to chain up 



24:6 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN- THE WALLS. 

from men the Word of God, who cannpt be bound, to 
lay upon men human traditions as eternal truths, to 
point men for succor to human mediation, to teach them 
that they are united together by, and can be taught and 
blessed by, a head — a father — upon earth, rather than 
the Lord Jesus in heaven. 

I am very far here from intending to depreciate or 
make light of the human ministry, or external ordi- 
nances, which it was necessary should exist in a body in 
which man is an essential factor, and which our Lord 
saw fit Himself to appoint in His Church ; only I wish to 
insist, first of all, on the fact so clearly and prominently 
brought out in the few Apostolic acts recorded for us, 
that the Lord Jesus Himself is alwaj^s working through 
and for the Church, and bending the perverse wills of 
her enemies, and the often ignorant and selfish wills of 
her children, to accomplish what He sees is best for the 
children of men, even where they see neither the end 
nor the way. And more: that His presence with the 
Church, and His unerring guidance of her, is not bound 
down nor determined by the teaching or acting of any 
Apostle or body of Apostles, or by any authority that 
can be called together, or seen, or comprehended, of 
men, any more than the whole harmonious working of 
the universe is determined absolutely by the partial laws 
and few relations of whose knowledge Science has made 
herself master. So that the Christian can say, "I be- 
lieve in the Holy Catholic Church," with an unshaken 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 247 

faith, though he may be able to point to no uniting head 
on earth, and may in vain attempt to define or bound, 
even negatively, the limits of that catholicity which 
Christ hath taught us is here on earth shut up neither 
to Jerusalem nor to this city, but infolds in its life- 
bearing bosom every soul whom the Father seeketh to 
worship Him in spirit and in truth, and which, beyond 
this earth, holds in a living communion of hopes and 
praj-ers the Christian dead, the followers of truth, even 
f ;om righteous Abel to the believer whose released soul 
the joyous angels are at this minute winging swift to 
the glad peace of Paradise. So that the Christian may 
say, with an unfaltering faith, " I believe that the Lord 
Jesus is now with His Church, and will be with her al- 
ways, even to the end of the world, to teach and guide 
her into all truth ; " though this teaching for him may be 
formulated in the decrees of no council, and the eye in 
vain strive to pierce through the storm around us, and 
mark out the path over which we are going, far less de- 
scry the blessed haven where we would be. Surely, with- 
out this faith in Christ's constant and overruling pres- 
ence as Head with His Church, no one could be found 
rash enough ; in these days of division and doubt and 
questioning, to take upon himself the overwhelming re- 
sponsibilities that lie in the Ministry which He founded 
to carry on His work. 

And now we are met here this morning to receive 
into a part in this present work of- Christ in the world 



248 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

one who has been, we trust, both inwardly moved by- 
God the Holy Ghost to take upon him the office and ad- 
ministration of a deacon, to serve God for the promoting 
of His glory and the edifying of His people, and has 
also been approved by the Church, as in all particulars 
of external fitness truly called to this Ministry. It is 
made my duty, by our rubrics, in the sermon to declare 
the duty and office of the diaconate, how necessary that 
order is in the Church of Christ, and also how the people 
ought to esteem them in their office. Passing, there- 
fore, from the general subject of the Ministry, founded 
by our Lord to carry out His work in the world, I must 
ask your attention to a rapid sketch, as it is recorded by 
St. Luke, of how the Lord went on to develop the mis- 
sion given by Him to the Apostles by the institution of 
this order. At first we find the infant Church gradually 
detaching itself from the Jewish worship, under ap- 
parently the immediate ministry of the Apostles only. 
Then, in the sixth chapter, we find instituted an order 
universally conceded to be that of the deacons — this 
from two to three years after our Lord's ascension. It 
had its rise, as all really useful things must have, in a 
special want of the time. The first Christians, expect- 
ing speedily the coming again of the Lord Jesus in the 
flesh, and moved by a great contempt for all worldly 
goods, which they felt were soon to pass away, tried the 
plan of living as a common family, selling their lands 
and houses, putting the proceeds into a common fund, 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 249 

and distributing unto every man, according as he had 
need. This seems to have worked well enough when 
they were a small and homogeneous body ; but, pres- 
ently, when their numbers were multiplied, and many 
Gentiles were brought into the Church, there arose a 
murmuring of these against the Hebrew body of Chris- 
tians, because their widows were neglected in the daily 
ministration. " Then," we are told, " the twelve called 
the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, ' It is 
not reason that we should leave the Word of God and 
serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among 
you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost 
and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this busi- 
ness. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer 
and to the ministry of the Word.' " And the saying 
pleased the whole multitude ; and so they chose seven 
men, of whom a proportion at least represented the 
body of Gentile Christians. And the Apostles ordained 
them, praying and laying their hands on them. The 
order thus started to meet a temporal need was con- 
tinued, however, after the communistic system, which 
had given it rise, was abandoned by the growing Church, 
and, beyond their first mission of serving tables in the 
daily ministration, we presently find that to them was 
given the power of preaching and of baptizing, but that 
they did not have the power of laying on of hands, 
whether in the way of confirmation or of ordination. 
They are constantly referred to as a separate order in 



250 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

the Epistles of St. Paul; and when we pass from Holy- 
Scripture to the writings of the fathers, we find them 
clearly defined as a body charged especially with the 
care of the charities of the faithful, but serving further 
in the congregation in a subordinate capacity in the min- 
istration of spiritual offices. " Not merely ministers of 
food and drink," says St. Ignatius, " but servants of the 
Church of God." And so they have continued to serve 
as a separate order in the Church unto this day. Nor 
have any of those who have thrown away this order of 
ministry instituted by the Apostles ever been able to 
give any good or sufficient reason why it should, or that 
it lawfully may, be discontinued in the Church. 

Deacons : servants of the Church of God. My broth- 
er, the first thought and meaning in this office to 
which you are, by God's help, to be called to-day, is that 
of service, of ministration. Its very name means this, 
and its character in this respect was given it from the 
mouth and by the example of Him who Himself healed 
the lame and blind and dumb and maimed, and fed the 
famishing multitudes by Galilee's storm-tossed waters. 
And He. gave this as the single idea and meaning of His 
own ministry in its wholeness and in all its parts. For 
this deacons exist, for this priests exist, for this bishops 
exist — to minister, to serve mankind, for whom Christ 
died; and, alas for that steward, in whatever office, 
who forgets this the first charge of his Lord to him ! 

When the two sons of Zebedee were betrayed by 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 251 

their mother's ambition into seeking a primacy over the 
other Apostles, and the ten were moved with indigna- 
tion against them, we read that Jesus called them unto 
Him and said : " Ye know that the princes of the Gen- 
tiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are 
great exercise authority upon them ; but it shall not be 
so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, 
let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief 
among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of 
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister 
and to give His life a ransom for many." In this text, 
Christ holds up to us the whole object of His coming 
into the world, and the whole meaning of His life as 
man on earth ; and the work that He began He has sent 
His disciples to carry on — the same work, and in the 
same way. Not to be ministered unto, but to minister 
— to pour out the richest treasures of life as He did, for 
the helping and saving of fellow-men, this is the life, 
the heart of Christianity. Men have represented it 
otherwise, I know, have offered to the world in substi- 
tute rules of external obedience, laws of abstinence and 
punctilious body-service, the assent of an intellectual 
belief to the doctrines of a traditional orthodoxy, or the 
abstractions of some great theological mind of earlier 
or later days ; but these things, however good in their 
place, are but the framework, the dead skeletons of re- 
ligion. They cannot heal and fill men's aching hearts. 
They cannot draw men to Christ. They cannot convince 



252 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

men of His Divinity, unless they be filled out with the 
flesh and blood and animated with the living breath of 
Christ Himself. Men who are dying now, in this nine- 
teenth century, do not want a dead Christ, but a living 
one; do not want to be pointed back to foodless stories 
of a far-off past, but to be shown the Christ now in the 
world, and strong to help men who are now going astray 
and falling, hungering, fainting, dying here. If Christ's 
servants will do for their fellow-men now in Christ's 
name what their Master did when He went about in 
Galilee — healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising 
the palsied, opening the eyes of the blind, giving back 
to weeping women their dead raised to life again, and 
helping men, saving them, wherever He went — then 
the world of to-day will accept and believe in their 
Master living and working in them, with a faith that 
no other evidences, no historical testimony or exhaust- 
ive arguments for His Divinity could possibly effect. 
And working so, in Christ's name and stead, faithfully, 
blindly, as some might say, we may confidently leave in 
His hands the reaping and garnering of the fruits, and, 
above all, the shaping and governing of the Church in 
both her present and future work. Infinitely good were 
it for the Church did her ministry now think less of 
governing and guiding, and more of serving her — could 
they only always presently realize that the Lord Jesus is 
a living Head to her to-day (as He has always been), go- 
ing on both to do and teach by her, what He began to do 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 253 

until the day that He was taken up, and that her holiest 
bishops, her greatest doctors, are as little wise or, thank 
God, as little able to direct Christ's work now as were 
those Apostles who would have called down fire from 
heaven to consume the ignorant Samaritan villages, or 
as was St. Peter, when he would have turned his Master 
aside from the royal road of self-sacrifice ! What Christ 
asks of His true apostles to-day is simply to carry out 
His orders, to do His plain work, with all the loyalty 
and devotion that man ever bore to his king. When 
the first council of the Church — the Apostles and elders 
and brethren who met at Jerusalem — sent back Saint 
Barnabas and Paul to Antioch, commissioned to settle 
the great question of ceremonial law which had arisen 
from the intolerance of those who taught that circum- 
cision was necessary to salvation, they commended them 
to the Gentile brethren, not as men learned in the law 
or in the teachings of the Church, neither as great 
preachers, nor as wise men, strong in executive and or- 
ganizing power, but they gave them this supreme com- 
mendation : " Men that have hazarded their lives for the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

I do not wish to dwell on the thought of hazarding 
life in itself. It has been made common to us all in this 
generation as a thought and as an act. And, happily 
for mankind, there are very few among men, women, or 
children, who would not, or indeed who do not, at some 
moment in their life, in some way or other, rise beyond 






254 ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS. 

self to the devotion of hazarding life for some principle 
of right or justice, or for some person who is dearer to 
them than life. But I do wish to lay all stress on that 
for which life is hazarded. This is something that every 
minister of Christ must to-day look to carefully, anx- 
iously. For you, my brother, called to a part in Christ's 
work in the world in this generation, let there be but 
one thing for which you will hazard your life — the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not only that men from 
without will seek to mislead you, saying, "Behold, here 
is Christ ! " in the secret chambers of superstition, or 
there in the deserts of rationalism. Within the Church 
you will be tempted to spend and hazard your life, for 
schools of theology, for party rivalries and successes, for 
some even of the modes of work used by the Church. 
You will be asked to make points of conscience, for 
which men might die, of utterly non-essential positions 
or acts of ritual in the celebration of our worship. You 
will be asked, with an equal superstition, to oppose as 
a matter of conscience, perhaps, the same observances, 
with a bitterness which no pretended loyalty to Christ 
therein could possibly justify. You may be warmed, in 
some moment of enthusiasm, to hazard life for the glory 
or honor of the Church in her mere visible manifesta- 
tions. I pray God that you may hazard your life' rather 
and only for the name of your Lord Jesus Christ, in 
bringing the light and comfort and peace of His Gospel 
to dying fellow-men, of service to whom He has said, 



CHRIST WORKING IN HIS CHURCH. 255 

" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Should, 
then, your hazard of life be accepted, fear not. Jesus, 
your King, will stand clear to your closing eyes, comfort- 
ing you with the vision of Himself, for whom you die, 
and of the certain victory which you will have helped 
Him to win. 



APPENDIX. 



St. Paul's within the Walls, Borne, is built from designs by 
George Edmund Street, Esq., E. A., No. 14 Cavendish Place, 
Cavendish Square, London, England, who visited Kome and 
made his first sketch on the ground, after careful study of the 
situation of the church-lot and of its surrounding buildings. On 
account of the great height of these, Mr. Street threw his tower 
into the facade of the church, which would otherwise have 
been dwarfed by the greater loftiness of the opposite and ad- 
joining houses. In his original plan, also, the tower was ad- 
vanced beyond the rest of the f acade about a foot and a half, so 
as to define its character as a tower from the street up ; but 
this plan we were forced to abandon, from the ignorance or 
perverseness, I might almost say, of the municipal commissioner 
in charge of the laying out of the new quarters, who objected 
to the broken facade on the Yia Nazionale, which he hoped to 
make the great boulevard of Eome, and demurred to our going 
on according to the original design. Hence the flat f acade, in 
which the tower is not defined till it rises above the clerestory. 

The construction of the foundation- walls was intrusted to 
the superintendence of Signor Rodolfo Lanciani, a Roman en- 



258 APPENDIX. 

gineer, well known as Secretary of the Commission on Archae- 
ology. 

The construction of the building, from the foundation-walls 
upward, was directed by the Cavaliere Henri Kleffler, a Swiss 
architect of high standing, resident in Eome, who also regulated 
the accounts of the contractor. 

The general contract for the building was given to Signor 
Biagio Frontoni, a Koman master-mason, who, with Signor 
Gioacchino Pardini as associate, executed directly all the brick- 
work on both the church and the tower, and no better brick- 
work has been done lately in Eome. Signor Giovanni Fabri, 
of Eome, acted as misuratore for the whole contract. 

The other work on the building was executed by the fol- 
lowing sub-contractors, all of Eome : Stone-cutting of exterior, 
by Augusto dell' Aquila ; carpenter's work, by Annibale Eenzi ; 
marble-work of choir, by Giovanni B. Pistacchi ; stone-work 
of tower, by G. B. Pistacchi, Pietro Fioravanti, and Leopold 
Bracci. 

The stone-work of the interior was executed by workmen 
brought from Marseilles. All the work has been particularly 
well done, but that of the carpenter, Signor Annibale Eenzi 
deserves special mention, in a city where this kind of work is 
rarely good. Signor Daniel Ziegler, the custode of the church, 
was employed as watchman and general assistant to the rector 
during the whole of the construction, and was indefatigable in 
the duty intrusted to his charge. 

The plan of the building is that of the Basilica, with apse, 
nave, and side-aisles. Its general dimensions are as follows : 
Length of nave, outside, 118 feet; of apse, 20 feet; total, 138 
feet. Width at front, outside, including tower, 66 feet; through 
body of church, outside, 62 feet. The walls are 3 feet thick. 



APPENDIX. 259 

Width of nave, inside (to centre of pillar), 32 feet; of aisles, 
12 feet each. Height of church from floor to roof, inside, 59 
feet ; of clerestory-walls, inside, 47 feet, 6 inches. Height of 
aisle-walls, outside, 27 feet ; of front, to apex of roof, 66 feet; 
of tower, 139 feet. 

The building is constructed in the early Gothic of Northern 
Italy, in unequal courses of lake-colored brick, brought from 
Siena, and on the outside of travertine from the quarries near 
Tivoli. Travertine is the stone of which the Coliseum and 
St. Peter's, in Rome, are built. The stone used in the walls of 
the interior is a large-grained, calcareous stone known as Font- 
vieille, from the quarries of Aries, in France. It is a rich cream- 
color, and harmonizes exceedingly well with brickwork. For 
the capitals, or where great carrying-power was required, a 
harder variety, known as Estiallades, was used. The clerestory- 
walls are carried by nine whole and six three-quarter pillars 
each formed of a central shaft of polished red granite, sur- 
rounded by four smaller shafts of dove-colored Carrara marble. 
These rest upon solid bases of red marble from Perugia, and 
the dark-blue marble known as Bardiglio. 

The nave is covered with an open timber roof — the ground 
of fir, the beams and ribs of chestnut. The side-aisles are 
vaulted in fine brick, with ribs of Aries-stone. 

The floor is a kind of rough mosaic, known as Venetian 
pavement. The small stones which form the mosaic are set in 
a bed of clay and brick-dust, and the pavement is thus much 
drier than a marble one would be. As a further precaution, the 
floor has been made hollow, after an old Eoman model, with a 
space of eighteen inches between the large tiles on which the 
Venetian pavement is laid and the actual vault which covers the 
cellars. The furnaces are so arranged that the hot air can be 



260 APPENDIX. 

turned between the two floors along the centre of the church, 
and, circulating freely through their whole extent, escape into 
the body of the church through openings under the cornice of 
the side-walls, above the heads of the congregation. A most 
desirable result has been reached by this arrangement, namely, 
absolute freedom from dampness, and from draughts caused by 
the violent rush of hot air into the body of the church. 

A main doorway, with double arch, gives entrance from the 
Via Nazionale directly into the nave at its west end, while two 
doors open from either end of the south aisle into the garden, 
which lies along the Via Napoli, on that side of the church. 
One of these is arranged with a porch outside, with shed-roof 
under which carriages may drive in rainy weather. The last, 
or westerly, bay of the south aisle, which stands directly be- 
tween this door and the main entrance of the west end, is 
really the first story of the tower, which rises directly from 
the body of the church. This bay, which opens with great 
arches into both the nave and south aisle, will be used as a bap- 
tistery, with large font, standing free, in the centre. This has 
unfortunately, not yet been given. The easterly bay of this 
same aisle — the south — is occupied by the sacristy, with organ- 
chamber over it. 

The apse which forms the sanctuary has an inside depth of 
twenty feet. A choir, twenty-two feet in depth, is thrown for- 
ward from this, into the nave inclosed by a rail of colored 
marble. This choir-rail is developed at its two corners into a 
pulpit and reading-desk, arranged somewhat after the manner 
of the arribones of the primitive Church. The choir-rail in- 
closes stalls for six clergy and seven singers on either side. 
The choir is entered by three steps of dark-green marble. 

The apse will be separated from the choir by the com- 



APPENDIX. 261 

nmnion-rail — not yet given — and is raised two steps above the 
floor of the choir. The altar, given in memory of Kichard 
Cecil Kevin, is set forward from the wall in the old basilica 
manner, and is reached by three steps of white-and-red mar- 
ble. The floor of the apse and choir is a combination of 
English encaustic tiles and colored marbles. The marbles 
chiefly used in this, as also in the choir-rail and the pnlpit 
and reading-desk, are the rosso and verde antico, the yellow and 
green of Siena and Genoa, and white Greek marble. This 
work is exceedingly handsome, yet comparatively inexpensive 
in Eome, where marble-work is good and cheap, and wood- 
work very poor and dear. 

On the north side of the apse is the bishop's chair — with 
seats for two attendant presbyters — in marble, after an early 
model. This chair was given largely by subscriptions from the 
English and Scotch Churches, whence came our episcopal suc- 
cession. On the south side of the apse are a piscina and sedilia 
for three clergy. 

The vault of the apse should be finished in ancient mosaic, 
but stands at present unfinished in rough brickwork. 

The lower walls of the apse are in the same condition, but 
are hung with damask hangings until funds are forthcoming 
to finish them in marble or tiles. So, also, the walls of the 
church below the windows of the aisles. The carving of the 
capitals of the main columns, and of the cornices running 
around the clerestory, have also been left unfinished for want 
of funds. On the exterior of the church, the only important 
work left unfinished is in the spaces over the main doorway 
and the spandrel at the corners of the large west window, 
which it is desired to fill with mosaic representations of our 
Lord, as "I am the door," and of the Four Evangelists. 



262 APPENDIX. 

The stained glass in the church has all come from one firm — 
Messrs. Clayton & Bell, No. 311 Eegent Street, London. The 
windows of the apse, the great west window, and thirteen win- 
dows on the ground-floor of the church, have already been 
given. These allfollow one general plan of subjects and treat- 
ment. The windows of the apse represent the leading scenes 
of our Lord's life, except that the central window, instead of 
the Eesurrection, represents the vision of our Lord to St. Paul 
— "Last of all He was seen of me also." This window was 
given by the Eight Eev. William Bacon Stevens, D. D., LL. D., 
Bishop of Pennsylvania, in memory of the first bishop of that 
see, the Eight Eev. William White, D. D. The window on the 
south side of the apse, representing the taking of our Lord by 
the Eoman soldiery, and the "Behold the Man!" of the Eo- 
man governor, is given in memory of the Eight Eev. Alonzo 
Potter, D. D., late Bishop of Pennsylvania, who held the first 
service of our church in Eome in a private house in 1859. 

The window on the north side of the apse, representing the 
Annunciation and Nativity, is in memory of Julia Augusta 
Stevens, who died in Eome at Christmas-tide, 1870. 

The great wheel-window at the west end represents in its 
central medallion our Lord, with hand raised in act of blessing, 
with figures of eight early Eoman martyrs in the smaller me- 
dallions around Him, namely — Saints Ignatius, Agnes, Sebastian, 
Cecilia, Lawrence, Prudentiana, Clement, and Petronilla. This 
window is given in memory of Sigmund II. Horstman and 
Sallie H. Horstman. 

The double-light windows of the nave, eleven in number, 
illustrate the life of St. Paul. Beginning with " Brought up at 
the feet of Gamaliel," and " I lived a Pharisee," in the first win- 
dow on the left of the west door, the story of his life is carried 



APPENDIX. 263 

through in order until it closes with the martyrdom at the Tre 
Fontane and the burial in the Catacombs at Borne. These win- 
dows are given severally in memory of — 1. ' ; 

2. Desier Alstyne ; 3. James Brooks; 4. George Kisteau Am oss; 
5. Cornelia Burrowes ; 6. John W. and Mary Anne Smyth ; 7. 
Emily P. Wood; 8. Thomas Crawford; 9. Hartman Kuhn ; 10. 
John Alstyne; 11. The Eight Eev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., 
Bishop of Connecticut, and first bishop of the Church in 
America ; this window is given by Mr. J. C. Hooker, of Kome. 

The two windows in the baptistery represent (1) St. Paul's 
own baptism, and (2) the baptism of the jailer of Philippi and 
his household; and (1) our Lord taking the little children in 
His arms, and (2) giving commandment to His Apostles to go 
and baptize all nations. These Endows are given in memory 
of Mary Ludlum Cass, and of Charles Marshall Haseltine. 

The trefoil and quatrefoil lights over the double windows of 
the aisles and baptistery are filled with representations of the 
Apostles and of St. John Baptist. 

There are thirteen windows in the clerestory, at present 
filled with plain, tinted glass, but which it is desired in time to 
fill with memorial windows of rich stained glass. Information 
in regard to the design and cost of these can be had by writing 
to the rector, No. 39 Via della Mercede, or any member of the 
vestry at Eome. There is much yet in the way of decoration, 
or furnishing of the church, that might well be given as memo- 
rial-work. It is highly desirable to bring out prominently this 
feature of our Christian life in Eome, preeminently the city of 
Christian saints and martyrs. 

Besides the windows referred to above, may be mentioned, 
in this connection, the font, the organ, communion-rail (metal), 
decoration of choir-walls, the mosaic of apse (a grand subject), 
12 



264 APPENDIX. 

the mosaics over the main doorway, outside, and on the facade 
around the west window, a rectory and school-rooms, railing of 
beaten iron-work around the church, etc. 

So, in due time, may St. Paul's within the Walls be per- 
fectly finished, to the glory of God and the honor of American 
Christianity, in that city whose faith of old was "spoken of 
throughout the whole world." 



The Building-Fund Committee begs to acknowledge the 
receipt of the following subscriptions for the building of St. 
Paul's Church, Eome, Italy, received directly by the committee 
at Rome. Below will be found a list of subscriptions received 
through the treasurers in New York and Boston. It should be 
noted that some names appear in both lists. The amounts 
subscribed are given in Italian currency, which has ranged 
during the building of the church at from seven to eighteen 
per cent, below par. The dollar at par is equal to 5 lire, 35 
centesimi : 

Lire cti. 

Adam, Mrs. J. H 100 00 

Alms-box at church-door 652 00 

Amoss, Madame G. Risteau 500 00 

Anonymous 500 00 

Anonymous, February 16, 1875 550 00 

An American Lady * 2 5 00 

Appleton, Mrs. W. H 250 00 

Armstrong, per D. M 500 °° 

Arnold, Mr. and Mrs. H. P 500 00 

Ashley, Mrs. Maria 500 00 

B., Mrs. M 90 ° 0° 



APPENDIX. 265 

Lire cti. 

Babcock, S. D 488 24 

Baker, Mrs. S. L 30 00 

Baldwin, Governor H. P 1,000 00 

Bartlett, Miss A 50 00 

Bartlett, Miss A 100 00 

Beebee, E. Pierson 500 00 

Beekman, James W 2,000 00 

Bell, Miss Julia 500 00 

Biddle, Miss A. E 500 00 

Bigelow, William Sturgis 1,500 00 

Bishop, T. Alston 500 00 

Bixler, Mrs. D 500 00 

Blake, Mrs. J. R 110 00 

Blanchard, Miss 75 00 

Blodgett, W. T., £100 2,700 00 

Boit, E. D., £100 2,700 00 

Bradish, Mrs. G 50 00 

Brooks, Mrs. James 500 00 

Brooks, Mrs. James. 500 00 

Brooks, Mrs. James 500 00 

Brown, Mrs. Janet E 1,100 00 

Brown, Mr. and Mrs 250 00 

Buchanan, Rev. Dr. E. Y 100 00 

Burritt, Mrs. Phebe 2,500 00 

Burtchaell, Rev. S. B 75 00 

Butler, Mrs 500 00 

Butler, Edgar H 250 00 

Campbell, Mrs 50 00 

Cannon, Le Grand B 2,500 00 

Carhart, G. B 250 00 

Carter, Colonel J. F 50 00 



266 APPENDIX. 

Lire cti. 
Cash at different times 315 00 

Chatterton, Mrs 50 00 

Chester Cathedral, collection in 515 39 

Clapp, George P., $1,000 gold 5,679 00 

Clapp, George P 2,711 00 

Clapp, George P 2,500 00 

Clark, Lot C 488 24 

Cleveland, Mrs. S. P 100 00 

Coale, Mrs. and Miss Bell 168 75 

Coale, Mrs. and Miss Bell 200 00 

Coddington, G. F 500 00 

Coles, Miss .. . . : 250 00 

Cooke, Pitt, £5 144 50 

Cooper, Miss K. Maria 125 00 

Corning, Jr., E 54 24 

Crane, Miss 25 00 

Curtis, Dr 100 00 

Dabney, Mr. and Mrs 500 00 

Dana, Charles E 150 00 

Dana, Mrs. S. H 100 00 

De Flagg, Mrs. S 100 00 

DeFlagg, Mrs. S 100 00 

De Flagg, Mrs. S 500 00 

De Veaux College 542 50 

Dumaresq, J. S 100 00 

Dumont, Mrs 10 00 

E. MissM. F 30 00 

Evans, Miss 50 00 

Field, Hickson W 5,000 00 



APPENDIX. 267 

Lire cti. 

Field, Hickson W 5,000 00 

Fiske, Mrs. F. L 500 00 

Fiske, the Misses 500 00 

Frazer, Mrs., and Miss Hutchinson 100 00 

Frazer, Miss 50 00 

Friend 500 00 

Friend, through Mrs. W. S. H 27 20 

Friend 50 00 

Friend . 250 00 

Fuller, Jos. W 500 00 

Gale, Miss Carrie 500 00 

Goodrich, Miss . 100 00 

Graham, Mrs., and Miss Ward 500 00 

Grant, Miss 60 00 

Grigg, Mrs., £100 2,711 20 

Grigg, Mrs., frs. 2,500 2,675 00 

Hall, J. R 500 00 

Hallett, Miss M. C 10 00 

Hardcastle, Miss Emily J 50 00 

Harrison, Mrs. Joseph. 500 00 

Harrison, Miss Clara 500 00 

Harrison, Theodore L 500 00 

Haseltine, Mr. and Mrs. W. S., £50 1,305 00 

Haseltine, Mr. and Mrs. W. S., £50 1,426 50 

Haseltine, Mr. and Mrs. W. S., £100 2,695 00 

Hatton, Dr. George E 100 00 

Haynes, Mr. and Mrs. H. W 500 00 

Haynes, Mr. and Mrs. H. W 500 00 

Herriman, William H 5,000 00 

Herriman, William H 2,697 00 



268 APPENDIX. 

Lire cti. 

Herriman, William H 1,250 00 

Herriman, per W. H 250 00 

H., per Mrs. W. S ". 100 00 

Hewson, Dr. and Mrs 44 00 

Heyland, Miss 2 00 

Hoe, R. M 500 00 

Hollingsworth, Rev. Dr 100 00 

Hooker, Mrs 50 00 

Howard, Mrs 250 00 

Howland, Rev. Dr. R. S 500 00 

Huntington, Mrs 100 00 

James, Mrs. Julian 50 00 

Jervoise, Mr 125 00 

Johnson, Mrs. Jos. F 500 00 

Jones, Rev. C. W., £1 Is 30 35 

Kane, Mrs. Pierre C 50 00 

King, Dr. Charles R 250 00 

King, John A 1,500 00 

King, John A 1,250 00 

King, John A 1,250 00 

Kretehmar, Mr 10 00 

Lee, Henry 300 00 

Lewis, Mrs. G. R 168 85 

Lewis, Dr. and Mrs 25 00 

Lyman, Theodore 250 00 

Uartin, Mrs. John M 100 00 

Mason, Mrs. Sidney 500 00 

McCreery, Mrs 500 00 



APPENDIX. 269 

Lire cti. 

McKean, Mrs. H. P 500 00 

McMillan, Dr. and Mrs. Charles 250 00 

Memoriam, In 1,000 00 

Merritt, Douglas 500 00 

Meyrick, per Rev. Prebendary 360 75 

Mills, D. 250 00 

Morgan, J. S., £200 5,338 00 

Morgan, J. Pierpont, $1,000. .- 5,165 20 

Morgan, Rev. J. B., 500 francs 531 50 

Morris, W. H , 100 00 

Nevin, Rev. Dr. J. W 500 00 

Nevin, Rev. Dr. R. J 21,054 00 

No name 100 00 

Offertory, in at different times 1,086 70 

Offertory at Consecration 1,261 85 

Paris, From 6 00 

Pepoon, Mrs. Charlotte A 2,000 00 

Peters, Edward D 250 00 

Phillips, John C 10,000 00 

Pierson, Mrs. H. R 86 40 

Potter, Mrs. H. C 125 00 

Pruyn, J. V. L 1,000 00 

Randolph, Mrs. F 250 00 

Rathbone, Mrs. Lewis , 500 00 

Robertson, Rev. Canon 25 00 

Rogers, Mrs. Y. B 250 00 

Roosevelt, Frederick, 1,000 francs 1,072 00 

Russell, C. B 250 00 

Russell, H. E 500 00 



270 APPENDIX. 

Lire cti. 

Sampson, Miss 50 00 

Sehermerhorn, Mrs. A. E., £1,000 28,885 00 

Schermerhorn, F. August, £200 5,837 00 

Schwartz, Kev. D. L 254 TO 

Scott, William 1,250 00 

Sears, F. K 500 00 

Sears, Miss M. S. 200 00 

Sibthorpe, Mrs 200 00 

Simmons, F 100 00 

Snively, Rev. Thaddeus A 50 00 

Spencer, Mrs. L 1,000 00 

Stearns, Miss Priscilla 1,000 00 

Stebbins, John B 100 00 

Stevens, Mrs. E. A 19,722 40 

Stevens, Mrs. E. A., $10,000 51,688 30 

Stevens,F.W 2,700 00 

Stevens, F. W 2,695 00 

Stevens, Rev. C. Ellis 25 00 

Stickney, Rev. M. P 54 70 

Storm, Thomas 100 00 

Sullivan, Richard 100 00 

Sumner, Mrs 100 00 

Swift, John H., £20 532 00 

T 45 00 

Taylor, Admiral 50 00 

Taylor, Mrs. Charles..' 50 00 

Terry, Daisy and Arturo 100 00 

Thank-offering 50 00 

Turtellot, Mrs 25 00 

Varrick, The Misses 50 00 

Vaux, William S 100 00 



APPENDIX. 271 

Lire cti. 

Vernon, Mrs 50 00 

Visitor , 100 00 

Ward, Miss A., $500 2,449 18 

Ward, Mrs. Cornelia, $1,000 4,899 56 

Ward, Miss and Miss J. E 100 00 

Ward, Mrs. Montaigne and Miss 1,000 00 

Warren, J. Hobart 500 00 

Waterman, Miss 150 00 

Whitney, Charles W 114 50 

Widow's Mite 300 00 

Williams, per Mrs. Langdon 200 00 

Willett, Mrs 500 00 

Wilkins, Mrs. G. M 5,000 00 

Wilson, W. T 500 00 

Winthrop, Hon. R. C 1,000 00 

Wolfe, Miss C. L., £2,400 65,280 00 

Wolfe, Miss C. L 25,000 00 

Wolfe, Miss C. L. $5,000 gold 27,460 00 

Wood, Ransom E 250 00 

Wood, Mrs. Richard D , 50 00 

Woodward, Judge 500 00 

Wyckoff, Mrs. H. J 500 00 

Wynkoop, H. S 500 00 

Wurts, George W 500 00 

Yorke, Miss 20 00 



272 APPENDIX. 

The following subscriptions in United States currency are 
acknowledged from the accounts furnished by the treasurers in 
New York and Boston : 

Abbott, Mrs $20 00 

Akerly, Rev. S. M 50 00 

Allen, Mrs. Crawford 200 00 

Anonymous, June 12, 1875 300 00 

Anonymous, Boston 5 00 

Anonymous, Boston 10 00 

Anonymous, Boston 1 00 

Anonymous 1 00 

Anonymous 1 00 

Arnold, Benjamin G 500 00 

Artists' Gifts, from sale of 791 40 

Aspinwall, William H 500 00 

Astor, John Jacob 500 00 

Astor, William 1,000 00 

Astor, William B 500 00 

Aymar, Benjamin 500 00 

B., Miss E. N 200 00 

B., Mrs. E. J 20 00 

Baird, Miss 50 00 

Bailey, Miss 2 00 

Baldwin, Governor H. P 200 00 

Baldwin, Governor H. P 100 00 

Barbey, H. J 25 00 

Barnes, per A. I 1 00 

Bartlett, Miss A. A 100 00 

Baylies, Mrs 10 00 

Bedell, Bishop and Mrs 100 00 



APPENDIX. 273 

Bingham, Mrs. H. H $100 00 

Bishop, D. W 50 00 

Bishop, Mrs 100 00 

Bohlen, John 100 00 

Bradford, Mary S 25 00 

Brimmer, Mr. and Mrs. Martin . 100 00 

Brown, James M 250 00 

Brown, Mrs. S. B 50 00 

Buffalo, From 2 00 

Burritt, Mrs. Phoebe. 56 00 

Butler, Rev. Dr. C. M 80 00 

Butterfield, General Daniel 250 00 

Cascade, Iowa, Missionary at 1 00 

Cash 50 

Cash 50 

Chauncey, Henry 1,000 00 

Childs, George W 100 00 

Christ Church, Oyster Bay 62 28 

ChurchiU, Timothy G 100 00 

Cincinnati, collected in 7 00 

Clark, Lot C 100 00 

Coffin, Lemuel 200 00 

Coles, E 25 00 

Coles, Miss 25 00 

Congreve, Charles M 50 00 

Congreve, Charles M 25 00 

Corse, Israel 100 00 

Cox, Townsend ........;. 100 00 

Dana, Mrs. R. H., Jr 10 00 

Dash, Bowie 100 00 

DeBlois, Stephen G 10 00 



274 APPENDIX. 

Dexter, Charles W $50 00 

Dilier, J 10 00 

Dorrance, W. T , 50 00 

Dow,AbbotP 50 00 

Downer, F. W 100 00 

Drexel, A. J 250 00 

Emmanuel Church, Boston 100 00 

Epiphany, Philadelphia, Church of 85 22 

Evans, Mrs. Fannie H 1,000 00 

Fenton, Mrs. J. P 25 00 

Field, Benjamin H 100 00 

Fish, Hon. Hamilton 500 00 

Foster, Francis C 50 00 

Foster, Frederic G , 500 00 

Franks, James P 1 00 

French, Jonah 250 00 

G , Mr 10 50 

Gordon, George 25 00 

Grace Church, Brooklyn 200 00 

Grace Church, Brooklyn 50 00 

Grace Church, Brooklyn 30 00 

Grace Church, Member of. 35 00 

Grace Church, New York 250 00 

Graham, Commodore J. H 200 00 

Gray, John A. C 500 00 

Greenleaf, Mrs. James , 100 00 

Guerin, O. K 5 00 

Hale, Miss Julia L 10 00 

Hale, J. M 25 00 



APPENDIX. 275 

Hale, Miss Laura C $15 00 

Hammond, Mrs. George W 20 00 

Haskins, Rev. T. W 2 00 

Heinneman, Emil 200 00 

Hinckley, Mrs. S. L 100 00 

Hoadley, J. C 100 00 

Holy Innocents, Hoboken, S. S. of. 35 22 

Hoppin, C 20 00 

Howard, John P 1,000 00 

Howland, Miss 10 00 

Huey, Dr 10 00 

Hunt, Mrs. Washington 100 00 

Huntington, Daniel 200 00 

Huntington, Rev. Dr. William R 25 00 

Ives, Robert H 300 00 

Ives, Robert H. 100 00 

Jackson, Mrs 100 00 

Jarvis, George A 125 00 

Johnston, Mrs: M 100 00 

Jones, George F 100 00 

Kemp', George 500 00 

King, John A 100 00 

Kuhn, Mrs. Grace M 100 00 

L , Mrs 10 00 

Lawrence, Amos A 50 00 

Lawrence, Rev. Arthur 50 00 

Leonard, W. B 50 00 

LeRoy, Daniel 100 00 



276 APPENDIX 

Lodge, Mrs. James $10 00 

Low, Abbot Augustus 62 50 

Low, Miss Henriette 500 00 

Low, Setb 62 50 

Low, William G 62 50 

Lowell, Miss 4 00 

Lyman, Right Rev. T. B 500 00 

Lyman, Theodore 25 00 

Masters, Miss 2 00 

Megargee, Mrs. M. C 50 00 

Messenger, Henry 100 00 

Miller, J. W , 100 00 

Moran, Francis 114 25 

Morgan, J. Pierpont 1,000 00 

Morrill, W. B 10 00 

Mott, Francis 10 00 

Mudge, Enoch R 50 00 

Nativity, Bethlehem, Church of. 400 00 

Neilson, Margaret A 100 00 

Newton, Rev. Dr. Richard 25 00 

Newton, Rev. W. W 25 00 

Nourse, Benjamin F 25 00 

Osborn, William H 500 00 

Paddock, Bishop and Mrs 25 00 

Parkhill, C 1 00 

Partridge, Lucius A 25 00 

Passenger on Russia, £5 26 10 

Patterson, James ' 250 00 



APPENDIX. 277 

Penny, E. W $1 00 

Pierrepont, Ellen L 62 50 

Pierrepont, Henry E 200 00 

Pittsburg, Pa., collected in 26 00 

Potter, Howard 100 00 

Prime, Miss Nina 5 °° 

Pruyn, John Y. L 100 00 

Putnam's School, Pupils of Miss 10 00 

Rhinelander, William C 500 00 

Rice, Governor A. H 200 00 

Rice, Mrs. Henry A 100 00 

Richmond, RE 100 00 

Ridgeley, Mrs. Charles 500 00 

Roberts, S. W 20 00 

Rodman, S. W 100 00 

Rodgers, Mrs. John L 100 00 

Roosevelt, James A 250 00 

Roosevelt, Theodore 500 00 

Sanger, H 200 00 

Saul, Rev. James 100 00 

Schwab, Gustav 50 00 

Scott, Thomas A 250 00 

Scott, William 500 00 

Scott, William H 100 00 

Shaw, Mrs. G-. Howland 40 00 

Sheldon, Henry L 1 00 

Sheldon, W. C 200 00 

Shoenberger, J. H 250 00 

Sloan, Samuel 100 00 

Smith, Mrs. C. A 50 00 

Smith, Charles F 50 00 



278 APPENDIX. 

Smith, George P $25 00 

Smyth, Mrs. Mary Ann 50 00 

Sowdon, A. J. C 100 00 

Spencer, Mrs. C. L . . . 2,000 00 

Spencer, Mrs. C. L 1,000 00 

Spencer, Mrs. C. L 2,000 00 

Spencer, Mrs. 0. L 1,000 00 

Spencer, Mrs. C. L 1,000 00 

St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn 360 00 

St. Paul's, Boston 37 61 

St. Paul's, Brookline, S. S. of. 25 00 

St. Philip's, Highlands 17 00 

St. Philip's, Highlands 77 00 

St. Thomas's, New York 196 26 

St. John, D. B 100 00 

Stephens, Mrs. Frederick W , 500 00 

Stewart, A. T .... 500 00 

Stuart, David..... 100 00 

Sturgis, Jonathan, In memory of 500 00 

Sturgis, Mrs. Jonathan 200 00 

Suter, Mr. Hales W 100 00 

Townsend, C. A 100 00 

Transfiguration, New York, Church of 137 00 

Trimble, J. N., 1 00 

Trinity Church, Boston 200 00 

Trinity Church, Princeton, N. J 12 00 

Trowbridge, E.L 100 00 

Tucker, William W 50 00 

Tweddle, John 100 00 

Underhill, Mrs. M. V 50 00 

Underhill, Mrs. M. V 50 00 



APPENDIX. 279 

Yanderpoel, Mrs. Ellen $50 00 

Van-Post, Herman L 100 00 

Waterman, Miss Emily 100 00 

Webster, B. C 100 00 

Weeks, John 100 00 

Welsh, John 250 00 

Welsh, John 250 00 

Welsh, William 250 00 

White, Mrs. Joseph M 100 00 

Widow's Mite 1 00 

Widow's Mite 1 00 

Winthrop, Buchanan 25 00 

Wolfe, John David 1,000 00 

Wood, E. R 25 00 

Wright, W. W 100 00 

Wynkoop, H. S 75 00 

Received from W. Scott, Treasurer, without names 61 77 



The rector desires to add to these acknowledgments of the 
Bulding-Fund Committee a special acknowledgment to Mrs. C. 
L. Spencer and Miss O. L. Wolfe, of New York, for the joint 
gift of $15,000, by which the floating debt on the church has 
been entirely canceled. The names of these ladies have already 
appeared among those of the most generous helpers of the 
church in Rome; and, in this munificent gift, they have but 
crowned a work which, without them, could not have been 
accomplished so soon or so perfectly as it has been done, and 
have set the representatives of the Church at Rome free from 
all constraint, so that they can be ready to give their unfettered 



280 



APPENDIX. 



strength to any work that the progress of reforming ideas in 
Italy may permit. To Mrs. Spencer and Miss Wolfe is due, for 
this action, an acknowledgment of obligation, not only from 
the rector and vestry of the congregation at Eome, but from all 
who have heretofore contributed to the building of the church 
in that city, and from every one who is interested in the re- 
covery of Italy to the Christian Faith. 

New Toek, October 20, 18T7. 



THE END, 



A thoughtful and valuable contribution to the best religious literature 
of the day. 



RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 



A Series of Sunday Lectures on the Relation of Natural and Revealed 
Religion, or the Truths revealed in Nature and Scripture. 

By JOSEPH LE CONTE, 

PEOFESSOE OF GEOLOGY AND NATUEAL HISTOEY IN THE UNIVEESITY OF CALIFOENIA. 

l2mo, cloth. Price, $1 50. 

OPINIONS OF THE PBESS. 

" This work is chiefly remarkable as a conscientious effort to reconcile 
the revelations of Science with those of Scripture, and will be very use- 
ful to teachers of the different Sunday-schools." — Detroit Union. 

"It will be seen, by this resume of the topics, that Prof. Le Conte 
grapples with some of the gravest questions which agitate the thinking 
world. He treats of them all with dignity and fairness, and in a man- 
ner so clear, persuasive, and eloquent, as to engage the undivided at- 
tention of the reader. We commend the book cordially to the regard 
of all who are interested in whatever pertains to the discussion of these 
grave questions, and especially to those who desire to examine closely 
the strong foundations on which the Christian faith is reared." — Bos tori 
Journal. 

"A reverent student of Nature and religion is the best-qualified man 
to instruct others in their harmony. The author at first intended his 
work for a Bible-class, but, as it grew under his hands, it seemed well to 
give it form in a neat volume. The lectures are from a decidedly re- 
ligious stand-point, and as such present a new method of treatment." 
— Philadelphia Age. 

" This volume is made up of lectures delivered to his pupils, and is 
written with much clearness of thought and unusual clearness of ex- 
pression, although the author's English is not always above reproach. 
It is partly a treatise on natural theology and partly a defense of the 
Bible against the assaults of modern science. In the latter aspect the 
author's method is an eminently wise one. He accepts whatever sci- 
ence has proved, and he also accepts the divine origin of the Bible. 
Where the two seem to conflict he prefers to await the reconciliation, 
which is inevitable if both are true, rather than to waste time and words 
in inventing ingenious and doubtful theories to force them into seeming 
accord. Both as a theologian and a man of science, Prof. Le Conte's 
opinions are entitled to respectful attention, and there are few who will 
not recognize his book as a thoughtful and valuable contribution to the 
best religious literature of the day." — New York World. 

D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 549 & 551 Broadway, N. Y. 



The Recovery of Jerusalem. 



Capt. WILSON, R. E., and Capt. WARREN, R. E., 
Etc., Etc. 

1 vol., 8vo. Cloth. With Maps and Illustrations. 



" This is a narrative of exploration and discovery in the City of Jeru- 
salem and the Holy Land. It is a volume of unusual interest to the stu- 
dent of antiquities, and throws much light upon what was already partially 
known about the Holy City, and opens up many curious speculations and 
suggestions about things that were entirely unknown until the excavations 
and explorations commenced which the book faithfully records. The 
maps and illustrations much enhance the interest, and aid in a thorough 
understanding of the things described. It is a volume of over 400 pages, 
8vo., bound in cloth, and altogether beautifully presented." — Springfield 
Republican. 



Christ in Modern Life. 

SERMONS PREACHED AT ST. JAMES'S CHAPEL. 

By Rev. STOPFORD A. BROOKE. 

1 vol., 12mo, Cloth Price, $2.00. 

The main thought which underlies this volume is, that the ideas 
which Christ made manifest on earth are capable of endless expansion, to 
suit the wants of men in every age ; and that they do expand, developing 
into new forms of larger import and wider application, in a direct pro- 
portion to that progress of mankind, of which they are both root and 
sa'p. If we look long and earnestly enough, we shall find in them the ex- 
planation and solution not only of our religious, but even of our politi- 
cal and social problems. All that is herein said is rested upon the truth 
that in Christ was Life, and that this Life, in the thoughts and acts which 
flowed from it, was, and is, and always will be, the light of the race 
of man. 

D. APPLETG3F & GO,, Publishers, New York. 



PRIMARY TRUTHS OF RELIGION. 

By Eight Ret. THOMAS M. CLARK, D. D., LL. D., 

BISHOP OF RHODE ISLAND', 

1 vol,, 12mo. Price, $1.00. 

From the Alligemeine Literarsche, Zeitung, Berlin : 

" "We find in this book of the Bishop of Ehode Island a contribution to Christian 
apologetics of great interest and value. The book discusses, in five parts, the problems 
of Theism, the fundamental principles of morals, revelation, inspiration, and Chris- 
tianity. The great questions pertaining to these several heads Bishop Clark has most 
satisfactorily solved with a genuine philosophical spirit, and on the basis of compre- 
hensive studies. The work gives evidence throughout of the author's familiarity with 
the fundamental problems of the philosophy of religion. The Bishop is, without 
doubt, an eloquent and original thinker ; and his work, which, in its logical develop- 
ment, is acute, and clear, and precise, will enchain the interest of the readers for whom 
it has been written. As a short but exhaustive book for doubters, we greet this pro- 
duction of one of the most distinguished members of the American Episcopate, and 
wish for it an abiding success." 

From the English Churchman and Clerical Journal, London: 
"Bishop Clark has published this pithy treatise to meet the unsettled state of mind 
of his own counts-men in relation to the 'fundamental principles of faith and morals. 1 
The language is admirably lucid and clear, and the meaning of the writer is never 
buried under profound and technical phraseology, too often used in such works. Cler- 
gymen will find it excellently fitted for teaching to thoughtful working-men in their 
parishes." 

From the Church Opinion, London : 

"Bishop Clark's work is invaluable, as it is not written in a style above the capabili- 
ties of the general public, but, in words easy to be understood, refutes the doctrines 
of Positivism." 

From a review in the Literary World, London: 

""We welcome this book from the pen of an American Bishop. Dr. Clark has done 
well in this volume on ' The Primary Truths of Eeligion.' "With clearness, concise- 
ness, logical force, breadth of tone, wise discrimination, convincing statement, he deals 
with fundamental facts. Indeed, the whole work is one which may be put into the 
hand of any thoughtful, sincere unbeliever in the great truths with which it deals. 
Its candor will awaken admiration, and its reasoning lead to faith" 

From the JVew York Express : 

" The author of this valuable little work is a distinguished Bishop of the Protec- 
tant Episcopal Church, and has conferred a benefit on his co-religionists and on earnest 
Christians generally'by the production of this estimable hand-book of Orthodoxy. 
Avoiding dogmatic theology, he clearly and with great eloquence presents the scrip- 
tural and historical evidences in favor of revealed religion, meeting the cavils of ob- 
jectors with calm and well-digested arguments that will claim attention from even 
the most confirmed skeptics. The chapters on the evidences of the great truths of 
Christianity are especially worthy of commendation. Indeed, the whole work will 
prove an acceptable addition to the controversial religious literature of the day." 

From the Boston Transcript: 

"This clear and candid treatise is not dogmatic, but entirely true to its title. The 
writer, in a plain and lucid style, addresses himself to the unsettled condition of mind 
which prevails so extensively in regard to the doctrines that underlie all our 'Systems 
of Divinity. 1 His answers to fundamental questions are given in a catholic spirit that 
recognizes the fact that doubt is not sinful in itself, and there is no little skepticism 
which is to be treated with sympathetic and rational consideration." 

From The Lining Clmrch : 

" The book of the Bishop of Ehode Island is timely. It is of a kind which the 
church needs. It is fair, honest, and open. It does not sneer at what it does not un- 
derstand. It addresses itself in simple and honest terms to honest and thoughtful 
men. It is calm and judicial. It states opposing views with great fairness ; it takes 
up a position which must command respect, and it states it in terms which are moder- 
ate, and show appreciation of the force of opposing views." 



New York : D. APPLETON & CO.. Publishers, 549 & 551 Broadway. 



A VOLUME OF CHARMING ART-GOSSIP. 



GATHERINGS 



FROM 



AN ARTIST'S PORTFOLIO. 



BY 



JAMES E. FREEMAN. 



CONTENTS 



The Journey to Rome. 
The Caffe Greco. 
John Gibson. 

The Chevalier C . 

From my Diary. 

Thackeray. 

The Artist's Passion for Fame. 

Father Prout. 

My Terrace. 

Inez and Bernardo. 

Upon the Terrace. 

The Princess Borghese. 

Upon the Terrace. 



Giovannina, the Model of Saracinesc*. 

The Blind Man and his Child. 

My Model Angelo. 

Fortunate Models. 

Models, Ancient and Modern. 

The Dying Model. 

A Group of Models on the Sand of the 

Serchio. 
My Consulship at Ancona. 
Crawford and Others. 
A Summer Retreat. — The Rival Models. 
The Protestant Cemetery. 
Addio ! 



Mr. James E. Freeman, an American artist who has resided some 
thirty years in Rome, gives in this volume a most entertaining selec- 
tion of reminiscences, including anecdotes of many of the most distin- 
guished artists and literary people who have lived in or visited Rome 
during the period of his sojourn there, with many interesting chapters 
graphically descriptive of art-life in Italy. The book is eminently en- 
joyable to all classes of readers, and especially entertaining to artists. 
Nothing more gossipy, bright, and readable, has recently appeared. 

l6mo. Cloth. Price, $1.25. 

D. APPLETON & Co., 549 & 551 Broadway, N. Y. 

*#* Mailed, post-paid, to any address, on receipt of price. 



SCHOOLS AND MASTERS OF PAINTING, 

With an Appendix on the 
PRINCIPAL GALLERIES OF EUROPE. 

By A. G. RADCLIFFE. 
x vol., small 8vo Cloth, $3.00. 



" The volume is one of great practical utility, and may be used to advantage as an 
artistic guide-book by persons visiting the collections of Italy, France, and Germany, 
for the first time. The twelve great pictures of the world, which are familiar by copies 
and engravings to all who have the slightest tincture of taste for art, are described in a 
special chapter, which affords a convenient stepping-stone to a just appreciation of the 
most celebrated masterpieces of painting. An important feature of the work, and one 
which may save the traveler much time and expense, is the sketch presented in the 
Appendix, of the galleries of Florence, Rome, Venice, Paris, Dresden, and other Eu- 
ropean collections." — N. Y. Tribune. 

" Mrs. Radcliffe is a judicious and an entertaining guide, thoroughly acquainted 
with her subject, and writing in a style that is happily free from the disgusting cant of 
pretended connoisseurship. She leads her readers through the great galleries, discours- 
ing in a plain, easily-understood language. She has collected a large amount of useful 
information, and binds the divisions of her subjects together with a thread of philo- 
sophical thought." — Saturday Evening Gazette. 

"Admirably illustrated throughout, and presenting as it does the different schools 
in an orderly and methodical manner, it commends itself strongly to the art-student and 
the artist, its value to them being enhanced by the Appendix, with its catalogue of the 
noted art-galleries of Europe."— Detroit Free Press. 

"A work that deserves a wide sale, and one that is especially valuable and sugges- 
tive to those who desire a knowledge of the different schools of painting, from the 
earlier periods to the present time." — Pittsburg Commercial. 

" ' Schools and Masters of Painting, with an Appendix on the Principal Galleries 
of Europe,' will, we are sure, meet with a flattering welcome from the public. It is at 
once historical and descriptive, giving the reader a clear though somewhat minute idea 
of what has been achieved in this department of the fine arts. The author has not 
omitted to sketch every part of her interesting subject, conveying in the least space 
consistent with the purpose designed for the work all the material facts with which the 
public care to interest themselves."— Troy Times. 

" Mrs. A. G. Radcliffe, the author of this book, has done a useful work in giving, 
within a moderate compass, a history of the art of painting, from the most ancient times 
to our day, with brief accounts of the more famous painters and their works. The in- 
formation which she has here gathered can be found only in a number of tomes, of 
which the size and cost put them beyond the purse and time of the larger portion of 
general readers. But, having consulted the best authorities, and made herself mistress 
of what they have told, she here combines the pith of their works in a clear and inter- 
esting manner, with an easy and practiced pen." — N. Y. Evening Mail. 



New York: D. APPLETON & CO. ."Publishers. 



APPLETONS' AMERICAN CYCLOPOIA. 

NEW REVISED EDITION. 

Entirely rewritten by the ablest writers on every subject. Printed from new type, 
atid illustrated with several thousand Engravings and Maps. 

The work originally published under the title of The New American Cyclopaedia 
was completed in 1863, since which time the wide circulation which it has attained in all 
parts of the United States, and the signal developments which have taken place in every 
branch of science, literature, and art, have induced the editors and publishers to submit 
it to an exact and thorough revision, and to issue a new edition entitled The American 
Cyclopaedia. 

Within the last ten years the progress of discovery in every department of knowledge 
has made a new work of reference an imperative want. 

The movement of political affairs has kept pace with the discoveries of science, and 
their fruitful application to the industrial and useful arts and the convenience and refine- 
ment of social life. Great wars and consequent revolutions have occurred, involving 
national changes of peculiar moment. The civil war of our own country, which was at 
its height when the last volume of the old work appeared, has happily been ended, and 
a new course of commercial and industrial activity has been commenced. 

Large accessions to our geographical knowledge have been made by the indefatigable 
explorers of Africa. 

The great political revolutions of the last decade, with the natural result of the lapse 
of time, have brought into public view a multitude of new men, whose names are in 
every one's mouth, and of whose lives every one is curious to know the particulars. 
Great battles have been fought, and important sieges maintained, of which the details 
are as yet preserved only in the newspapers, or in the transient publications of the day, 
but which ought now to take their place in permanent and authentic history. 

In preparing the present edition for the press, it has accordingly been the aim of the 
editors to bring down the information to the latest possible dates, and to furnish an ac- 
curate account of the most recent discoveries in science, of every fresh production in 
literature, and the newest inventions in the practical arts, as well as to give a succinct 
and original record of the progress of political and historical events. 

The work was begun after long and careful preliminary labor, and with the most 
ample resources for carrying it on to a successful termination. 

None of the original stereotype plates have been used, but every page has been 
printed on new type, forming in fact a new Cyclopaedia, with the same plan and com- 
pass as its predecessor, but with a far greater pecuniary expenditure, and with such 
improvements in its composition as have been suggested by longer experience and 
enlarged knowledge. 

The illustrations, which are introduced for the first time in the present edition, have 
been added not for the sake of pictorial effect, but to give greater lucidity and force to 
the explanations in the text. They embrace all branches of science and of natural his- 
tory, and depict the most famous and remarkable features of scenery, architecture, and 
art, as well as the various processes of mechanics and manufactures. Although intended 
for instruction rather than embellishment, no pains have been spared to insure their 
artistic excellence; the cost of their execution is enormous, and it is believed that they 
will find a welcome reception as an admirable feature of the Cyclopaedia, and worthy 
of its high character. 

This work is sold to subscribers only, payable on delivery of each volume. It is 
completed in sixteen large octavo volumes, each containing about 800 pages, fully illus- 
trated with several thousand Wood Engravings, and with numerous colored Litho- 
graphic Maps. 

PRICE AND STYLE OF BINDING. 

In extra cloth, per vol $5.00 j In half russia, extra gilt, per vol. . $8 00 

hi library leather, per vol. ?. 6.00 In full mor. ant., gilt edges, per vol. 10.00 

In halfhirkey morocco, per vol 7.00 | In full russia,per vol 10.00 

*** Specimen pages of the American Cyclopedia, showing type, illustrations, etc., 
will be sent gratis, on application. 

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers. 



